Exercise Cuts Women's Risk of Heart Disease

Increased levels of exercise can reduce but not eliminate the risk of heart disease in overweight and obese women, a U.S. study finds.

The researchers analyzed data from 38,987 women who took part in the recently completed Women's Health Study. At the start of the study in 1992, information was gathered about the women's height and weight, the average amount of time per week they were physically active, other health habits, and medical history. The women were then followed for an average of 10.9 years.

At the start of the study, 34 percent of the women were considered physically active, 31 percent were overweight, and 18 percent were obese.

During the follow-up, 948 of the women developed coronary artery disease. Both body-mass index (BMI) and physical activity levels were individually associated with the risk of heart disease. The risk was lowest for normal weight women who were active, slightly higher for inactive normal-weight women, higher still for active women who were overweight or obese, and highest for inactive overweight or obese women.

Dr. Amy R. Weinstein, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues noted that fat cells (adipocytes) release chemicals that may harm the heart by accelerating the hardening of the arteries and increasing inflammation, clotting and dysfunction of the blood vessels.

"We postulate that the beneficial effect of physical activity may directly reduce and combat the ill effect of the prothrombotic factors released by adipocytes," the researchers wrote.

But they noted that exercise didn't eliminate the effects of being overweight.

"Even high quantities of physical activity are unlikely to fully reverse the risk of coronary heart disease in overweight and obese women without concurrent weight loss," the study authors concluded. "Regardless of body weight, these data highlight the importance of counseling all women to participate in increasing amounts of regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight to reduce the risks of coronary heart disease."

The study was published in the April 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

More information

The U.S. National Women's Health Information Center has more about heart disease.
-- Robert Preidt.

Forget The Gym - Just Move More Often

When it comes to the time to burn off some calories, most people think of heading to the gym. But do you know that the so called "free" (meaning no need to pay for a fee) exercises such as doing houseworks can also help to burn off that FAT?

Many fitness experts now believe that the simplest and most sustainable way to keep fit is what known as an "integrative exercise" - it simply means just "move around more often". A Britain's chief medical officer advises that one should exercise to raise the heart rate for 30 minutes five times a week.

Here are three ways to achieve the necessary exercises without heading to the gym:

• Break it down. You don't have to do 30 minutes all in one go. Studies show that several five to ten minute bursts of activity throughout a day will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory health, lower the risk of diabetes and other diseases.
  
  
• Doing your houseworks more often. Vigorous housework or gardening or brisk walking all count when it comes to integrative exercise. Activity breeds activity, the more you move, the more you will want to move everyday. Make this a habit.
  
  
• Take your dog for a walk. As mentioned all activities such as housework, running for a bus, gardening can help raise your heart rate and improve health. But, overall the single most valuable free exercise you can do is "brisk walking with your dog". So go and get a dog :-)

3 Amazing Flat Belly Exercises That Most People Don't Know About

If you want to discover 3 flat belly exercises which can shape your abdominal muscles and additional body regions simultaneously, then you've found the right article. Because among the most effective ways to form the abdominal muscles is to perform resistance training of separate body parts with workouts which work on the abdomen indirectly.

What do I mean by working the stomach indirectly? With each exercise, you have the primary muscles and you have supporting muscles. E.g., when you do press-ups, you are more often than not working your pectoral muscle, yet your shoulder muscles and triceps act as supporting muscles and also get pumped up. The stomach acts as a supporting muscle for numerous exercises. Doing these exercises means that you are flattening out your stomach simultaneously whilst you're working other body parts. And it is frequently more efficient than doing conventional stomach exercises.

Here are 3 workouts for a flat stomach which I recommend you start doing now:

1. Pull ups - the pull up is a solid exercise. It generally works the back muscles, except whenever possible get a friend to place his or her hand on your abdominals while you are doing it, they will tell you that it is solid as steel. That's because the abs are tensing like mad. Even doing 5 pull ups is more of an effective method than ,for example, a stomach exercise routine of 50 sit ups .

2. Push ups - whilst you're doing push ups you must make certain that your stomach is tucked in. That way, your abdominals are working hard every throughout the push ups. Regardless of the type of push up that you try: horizontal, elevated, or counter elevated, the abdomen is still shaping. Push ups work your total upper body and they are a major exercise to flatten out your stomach.

3. Pull down - this is executed by pulling down the pulley cable and is actually an easier variation of the pull up (yes I realize it sounds strange but they do similar things). Whilst you pull the cable down from above your head down to your waist, you upper body goes through a whole extension which means that your abdomen muscles are tensing. Once again, the abdomen acts as the supporting role, However it does not mean that it is not straining.

Practise these 3 flat belly exercises and you'll witness results throughout your upper body, not just your abs.

To read more about how to get flat abs, and the 5 facts you MUST understand if you're ever going to see yourself with a flat stomach and sexy six pack abs, check out my website, http://www.secretsixpackabs.com/truthaboutabs

Ultimately, and if you've read the facts over at my website, you'll understand that although these exercises might do some good for getting a flat stomach and possible six pack abs, there is no way that you'll get to that point with these exercises alone, and the good news is that it's not all about doing more exercises! It's ultimately about doing things smarter, not always harder...

You can shave years off your hard work by knowing the secrets to fast six pack abs. Because ab belts, ab-rockers, ab-loungers, and other infomercial ab-gimmicks... they're all a complete waste of your time and money. Visit Truth About Abs and you will discover that YOU CAN get your own sexy six pack abs , but only if you know our best kept secret...

Good Instructions To Gaining Muscle Mass

Muscle mass building is a hard effort and and also a high challenge. Society usually think you by your appearance let it be beautiful or ugly. Of course good looking persons obviously have good advantages over certain things in the society. So if you started already going to the gym and you already have your diet, you are good to go. You should focus on compound exercises if you plan on gaining weight because they are the best muscle gaining exercises, because you don't only work with targeted the muscle mass, but also with all the small ones that aren’t developed yet and will grow fast.

Building muscle should be enjoyed. You can build up muscle mass if you use a set plan and follow the instructions with as much high attention to detail as you can. You must set your goals and focus to these goals. It is significant to achieve the goals. Without the goals, you will have big difficulties in building muscle mass. Setting your goals and keep your motivation on the schedule. Make sure to do not set unrealistic goals and follow them in your routine.

Here are a few tips you should keep in mind when starting your muscle gaining:

Start weight training

Of course you want to have a large variety of fitness machines, then joining a gym that have them. For anyone who cannot follow any extra efforts but still want to build the muscle mass, you may to try with push-ups, pull-ups and dips. You can get hundreds of fitness exercises information trough the internet accessing. What is really good about it is that you don not need to incur high cost for the building muscle mass. You will be surprised how cheap exercises are at your goals.

Take lots of protein

The main food for muscle mass building is high protein. Beef, turkey and chicken are the most choices for the muscle mass and with great reason, they are both high protein. Important factor to how much protein you should consume is the type of activity you participated in and how often you do the activity. Good sources of the high protein foods you can get for your fitness exercises such as beff, fish, turkey breast, eggs white, skim milk, low fast cottage cheese, and protein powders.

Get enough rest

You need the ideal hours amount of rest. This way is not only includes getting between six to eight hours of sleep in a night but also includes using the amount of hours in workouts for the same body part.

You may do exercises in 3 days per week to build the muscle mass, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Do an easy warm up step to get the blood flowing. Then take moderate exercises and do 2-3 sets of 20 reps for each one. You must remember that any muscles don not grow when you are lifting. They usually grow when you are resting. And avoiding aerobic exercises. This way is important if you want to build the muscle mass. Because the aerobics burn glycogen and will create slow down the process of building muscle mass.

For more information about food supplements that needed for muscle mass, please visit to Muscle Building Supplements and Building Muscle Mass. To get weight loss, please visit to Fast Weight Loss.

How to Get Rid of Belly Fat

Bugged by Belly Fat? Then Read This!
By Craig Ballantyne.

I often get asked, "What's the best way to burn fat and lose my belly?... Do aerobics work better than interval training?... Does resistance training help at all?"

Many personal trainers aren't even sure. They will guess that the best way to lose belly fat is "crunches", "sit-ups", or "aerobic cardio". But the truth is -- none of these works best -- or even works at all!

When it comes to exercise, if you want to lose stomach fat fast, you need to increase the intensity of your workout by using both resistance training and interval training.

Australian researchers, such as Professor Steve Boucher, even believe that interval training can lead to a spot reduction of belly fat. That's something that no amount of abdominal training can do!

Time is also a factor. While bodybuilders and young guys without any cares in the world can spend an hour a day on cardio -- and sometimes get results -- men and women who only have 45 minutes, 3 times per week for exercise just can't depend on slow cardio workouts to burn belly fat.

Let's take a look at the perfect workout plan to get you maximum fat burning results in minimum workout time. Here are the keys.

First, start with a circuit of bodyweight exercises to prepare your body for a fat burning workout. Three good ones are bodyweight squats, pushups, and lunges. This warmup should only take 5 minutes.

Follow that up with supersets of resistance training using multi-muscle exercises for maximum metabolism boosting. A superset is two exercises done back to back with minimal rest between each. A great superset is dumbbell squats and dumbbell chest presses. This works so much better for post-exercise calorie burning than slow cardio workouts. It will lead to more belly fat burning as well.

After 15 minutes of resistance training, finish with 15-20 minutes of interval training. You don't need a lot of intervals to get great fat burning results. Start with a 5-minute warmup. Do one interval at 60 seconds working at a slightly harder than normal cardio pace. Then recover for 60 seconds at an easy pace. Repeat 5 more times. Finish with a 5-minute cool down.

With that workout schedule, you'll be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes, three times per week. Compare that to what most people do, which is run, jog, cycle, or use the cardio machines for 45 minutes straight. Sure, that will burn calories, but it doesn't build a better body.

Men and women love the fast fat-burning results they get from short-burst exercise sessions. Remember, your body was not meant to run marathons. Instead, it was meant to perform quick bursts of exercise, and that is why resistance training and interval training sculpt a better body than long, slow cardio workouts.

Of course, your diet is also essential if you want to lose belly fat. In fact, I always give more credit to nutrition for being a key factor in fat burning than I do exercise. No matter what you do, you can't out-train a bad diet! So cut excess sugar from your diet, and increase your protein and fiber intake (through fruits, vegetables, and nuts).

With the right exercise and a proper diet, you'll shed that unwanted fat in no time!

About the author:
Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men's Health magazine. If you're looking to burn fat, build muscle and quickly step into the body you have always wanted with just three workouts each week, check out Craig's fat-loss system, turbulence training.

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic Exercise Keeps You Young

British study found it shaved 10 to 12 years off biological age.

A person who maintains aerobic fitness may delay biological aging by up to 12 years, a new analysis shows.

Jogging and other types of aerobic exercise improve the body's oxygen consumption and its use in generating energy (metabolism). However, a steady decline in maximal aerobic power begins in middle age, decreasing about 5 ml/ (kg. min) every decade, according to the information in the analysis.

When maximal aerobic power falls below about 18 ml in men and 15 ml in women, it becomes difficult to do any activity without experiencing major fatigue. A typical 60-year-old sedentary man has a maximal aerobic power of about 25 ml, nearly half of what it was at age 20.

But research shows that a long period of relatively high-intensity aerobic exercise can increase maximal aerobic power by 25 percent (about 6 ml), which equals 10 to 12 biological years.

The analysis was published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

"There seems good evidence that the conservation of maximal oxygen intake increases the likelihood that the healthy elderly person will retain functional independence," said study author Dr. Roy Shephard, of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health and Department of Public Health Sciences, at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Aerobic exercise also reduces the risk of serious disease and promotes faster recovery after injury or illness. Additionally, it helps maintain muscle power, balance and coordination, which reduces the risk of falls.

More information:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about healthy aging for older adults.
-- Robert Preidt.

6 Secrets To Mass Building Workouts And Tips On How To Gain Mass

Attention all bodybuilders, I would like to share some mass building workouts secrets and tips on how to gain mass with you. They have been extremely convenient and "worth it" to me, so I thought they would help you too. Let’s start with your workouts:

1. Don't pick a weight you are able to lift for more than ten reps, or less than five reps. Lift within 75 percent to 95 percent of your one rep max.

2. When you lift for mass, make 70 percent (approximately) of your lifts powerful and explosive. Meanwhile, the other 30 percent should be alot slower and more controlled.

3. Not including warm-ups, your total work volume should not be less than 50 reps, but no bigger than 80 reps.

4. In order to control the devastating effects that "lactic acid" has on your strength, you should make sure you are always alternating opposing muscle group exercises.

5. On your last warm-up set, there should be 5 percent more weight than you will be lifting for your sets, it should be one explosive rep. (This will make your first work set feel easier than ever! By triggering an incredibly strong signal to the brain, then making it recruit alot more muscle fibers than needed.)

6. For maximum strength, always drink plenty of water and make sure you rest at LEAST three minutes in between sets.

I also want to share some helpful tips about mass gaining with you:

1. Question: I want to gain a lot of muscle; can I do it without adding fat?

Answer: The answer to this is that it is very difficult to do. If you want a lot of muscle you have to be in a positive calorie and nitrogen (protein) balance for an extended period of time. This means taking in more calories and protein than your body needs to maintain its weight, and excess calories generally equals at least a moderate amount of fat increase. Optimizing your food intake by training and resting properly will help ensure that you are building as much mass as possible in the process.

2. Question: How can I predict my one-rep max without actually doing it?

Answer: For years, bodybuilders have been using one-rep max charts to predict what they will lift in competition. They do this because it's hard to keep performing one-rep max lifts due to the pressure it puts on your joints and the safety precautions you have to take, like having a good spotter. The most commonly accepted formula is known as the Brzycki formula.

3. Question: My workout partner is always on me to drink more water, but frankly I hate it! How important is it? Any tricks to help me drink more?

Answer: Water is extremely important. for good health and if you're into packing on the mass it becomes even more important. There are three major reasons why. First, when carbs are stored in your liver and muscles for energy, they are stored as glycogen. Glycogen is dependent on water, that’s why when athletes’ carbohydrate load they must drink significant water if they are to store the glycogen. Staying hydrated means your muscles will be full and ready to go every workout. Second, water helps regulate sodium and potassium which are located outside and inside a muscle cell. If water levels become too low, sodium and potassium become out of balance and hormones like aldosterone and antidiuretic hormone start competing, and the end result is a higher risk of muscle cramping!

4. Question: My friend said I should do some cardio even if I'm in a mass phase of training. What do you think about this?

Answer: Everyone should know that cardio is good, but not for gaining mass! It burns fat, but it burns calories, carbs and even protein as well. This will slow your mass gains down. There's an old saying about gaining mass that goes something like this: "Lay down when you can sit, sit when you can stand, stand when you can move around and drive when you can walk". Gaining mass quickly is about putting all of your energy into your muscle and the weights. Of course, if you're getting ready for a bodybuilding competitions, football seasons or strongman competitions, you will need to incorporate cardio (aerobic) activity into your plans.

5. Question: What is ATP?

Answer: ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, which in its best sense supplies your body with energy. When glucose is broken down in the body, it supplies energy to ATP. ATP stores that energy until it is needed, at which time a phosphate group “springs off” to release energy and leave adenosine diphosphate. The "ATP's" reaction looks like this: ATP > ADP + Pi + Energy

6. Question: Can I shorten the 3-minute rest times in mass training?

Answer: Yes. But even though this will decrease your time in the gym, reducing rest times won’t allow your muscle’s energy system to completely recover before your next set. Sure, you’ll still get great results, but for the best possible results, follow the "three minute rest in between sets" rule.

Well, there you have it – 6 secrets to effective mass building workouts and some helpful tips about gaining mass! Try them and see how they affect your results.- my bet is that you will be pleased!

Copyright 2008, Masszymes Inc. All rights reserved

Emanuel Kyser has achieved great results with the Freaky Big Naturally Training System. There's tons of secrets about mass building workouts, bodybuilding programs, mass building routines, how-to-gain-mass and much more. Take action and go grab a copy of the FREE powerful bodybuilding package at http://how-to-gain-mass.freakygrowth.com.

Alternative Healthcare Video Sites

Hi,

I have constructed some video sites on alternative medicine and healthcare, covering various topics like aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, massage therapy, music therapy, reiki, rolfing and yoga.

There are hundreds of videos there. If you are interested in learning some alternative healthcare subjects, please visit: Healthcare Alternative Medicine Video Site.

The Prepared Pantry - The Key To Building Muscle

So you want to build muscle, right? Not only do you want to build muscle but you want to build it fast. Let's step inside your home for a minute. Pretend I'm the pantry police and I'm here to do a raid. What would I find? Would I find all the key muscle building ingredients you need to pack on solid lean weight or would I find a bunch of empty calorie foods that do nothing but prevent you from reaching your goal?

If you're trying to gain weight, the good kind of weight - solid lean mass- having a prepared pantry can mean the difference between victory and failure. Let's step back inside your home again. If you open your refrigerator, will you find flat soda and a jar of mayo or will you find live organic produce exploding with enzymes, vitamins and minerals? What if you open your cupboard? Will you find unprocessed, whole grains rich in nutrients or will you find highly processed, diluted, refined products with a bunch of sugar and high fructose corn syrup?

So do you believe every rep and every set is important to gaining muscle? You're right, they are important, but what about, every bite and every meal? Do you believe they are equally important? Yes, they are! If your body is so busy digesting and processing all the garbage you're putting into it, it can't possibly have enough enzymes left to digest all the proper food components you're consuming to build muscle.

So what do you do with all this STUFF that your body doesn't need? Throw it out! Do you think a runner will win a marathon if they did not eat adequate nutrition prior the run? Absolutely not, so why do you think that a body builder doesn't need adequate nutrition to perform like an athlete?

Half the battle to growing muscle and growing it fast is to be well prepared with the proper nutrition immediately ready and available for consumption. A bunch of frozen chicken breasts and raw potatoes aren't going to help you out either when you're hungry. An easy source of live and immediately available protein is hemp protein. All you have to do is add water or juice and BAM! you've got a power packed punch of nutrition.

Keep raw almond butter, fruits and veggies on hand read for immediate consumption. Having all the wrong foods immediately available are only going to result in poor food choices slowing your muscle gains down. Think about that one for a minute. Do you think you would be reading this article if the title was "Sure Fire Ways to Slow Your Muscles Gains Down"?

Nothing is more frustrating to me than to see someone call themselves a hard gainer. You know what? They're right, it's awfully "hard to gain" when you're on a diet of burger and fries! It's those last minute decisions that cost you. Your valuable hard training becomes meaningless if you can't provide your body what it needs when it needs it.

So how can you start building muscle and building it fast? The bottom line is that preparation is EVERYTHING. If you leave the house unprepared (since your pantry and refrigerator were unprepared) then you ultimately have to make unprepared decisions about what you consume. Building muscle isn't just about pushing around weights in the gym.

You can work out all year long and if you're not prepared to eat right when and where your body needs it, you can kiss your gains goodbye. I have never heard of anything being built fast without the right product or tool. So get the right products (proper foods) and get the right tools (being prepared) and start building muscle today!

Copyright 2008, Masszymes Inc. All rights reserved.

Rochelle Moreno is a dedicated natural bodybuilder who has built a lot of muscle mass fast using the Freaky Big Naturally Training System. Learn more about build muscle, our cutting edge training program, bodybuilding recipes and much more. Go to http://build-muscle.freakygrowth.com for your FREE Ultimate Bodybuilding Package.

Bodybuilding Workout Guide

There are dozens of fitness programs and bodybuilding routines advertised every day in the newspapers, but how would you know which suits you the best. How would you select the right fitness program for building your body?

Lets see, how you can select the best with most effective body- building workouts that will yield more result and tone up your body to look dashing and fit as a fiddle.

Body building workouts with sound scientific research involves lot of muscle strengthening exercises, which increases the muscles strength, maintains the integrity of the bones, and also improves your body balance, mobility and coordination.

Training with weights helps reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic diseases and there are programs and theories that can help towards bodybuilding to keep you trimmed and avoid infection of any kind.

Determine your goals before you begin your bodybuilding routine. This will guide you to plan and guarantee best results. To achieve success in bodybuilding takes a long time. Some pay attention to every minute details for goal-oriented techniques and results. Others opt for simple and easy strength training workouts depending on the individuals.

The big plus decision for strength training is to select three days a week workout regime.

Sometimes, strength training or body building workouts don’t work on time schedule; therefore every workout should increase the intensity from your previous workout. As intensity increases your body workouts could be spaced.

There are basically two types of workouts and they are:

Anaerobic workout – This is one of the finest weight training workouts and its far superior to any other type of exercise as it increases your metabolism and burns your fat thus giving your body a sculpted look.

Aerobic workout- This workout generally focuses on burning out fat and is a good addition to weight-training program. Aerobics should never be used as a substitute for weight training. You can start aerobic workouts from home or at a gym. Once you’ve learned the basic of aerobics you can take it to the park and begin your workout there.

Nutrition- Training and nutrition go hand in hand and as long as you workout, you can eat anything. But this concept or myth is wrong as you should always eat nutritious and well-balanced food and ignore junk food.

Rest- Sleep well, so that your body runs efficiently and as a bonus you will lose fats and help build muscles. Your mind and body is one or is in harmony with each other. If you mind is stressed and tired your body won’t be able to grow as effectively. So sleeping regularly and for at least 6 hours a day is recommended.

Supplements- if you need to make your workout more efficient, then you might need supplements because today some foods are so processed that they lack vitamins and minerals which body needs to gain maximum efficiency. Be wary that not all supplements are good for your body so make sure you talk with your local nutritionist before taking any supplements.

Basically determination and consistency is the key to successful bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding workouts can be tough however with the right mindset and guidelines you can achieve your perfect body fast. Find out more about the Muscle Gain Truth at UPickReviews.

Improving Health Through Exercise

Exercise has been known for a long time that it will make you healthier. This is true and especially among men. Exercising comes with many rewards while causing little side effects for optimal Men's Health.

Before you start to think of the dreadful exercise program you might of once been on, this is a new look at why men need to exercise regularly.

Exercising can not only help you, but others around you. If you sit around all day without burning any energy, men can become moody, irritable or just plain nasty.

A short workout can get rid of everyday stress, or at least make it easier and not affect you in which your friends and family want nothing to do with you. Exercising can help your relationships in every way.

Men like to get into the routine of things and live a day to day schedule, not changing too much from day to day. One of the benefits of exercising in the morning before work is that you will actually have energy.

Right after your workout you may feel a bit tired, but all that movement just woke up the body and is now prepared for the rest of the day. The same tired feeling you have after an intense workout is not the same as fatigue towards the middle of the day.

Exercising definitely improves strength and endurance. When this happens, it makes living everyday life easier. If you do a lot of walking in your workplace or need to go up a lot of stairs, the extra endurance you will get by exercising will get you through the day.

There are many experts that have proven that exercise can really fight off diseases or at least slow down the process. Some of the diseases that can be prevented are heart disease, arthritis, muscle mass loss, stroke and high blood pressure.

Since exercise also strengthens your muscles and joints, aging can take longer since your body can be in optimal health. Weak muscles, bones and especially heart will make aging more progressive.

Exercising can boost up your immune system as well. Just like fighting off diseases, exercising can be extremely effective against everyday colds.

Exercise also produces a much stronger heart. The heart is a major muscle and it is important to keep it strong. If you are not fit, when you do exercise, or climb stairs, you can feel the heart working extra hard.

Each week of exercise you put in, you are slowly building up your heart muscle and in time, everything that feels like a struggle now will soon be done easily.

The whole cardiovascular system will function more productively, creating a stronger pump for blood flow to and from the heart.

Weight problems are one of the main reasons men decide to exercise regularly. One thing to mention is that although losing weight through exercise is the most beneficial, exercising is more about conditioning your body and strengthening your muscles, joints and ligaments and heart.

Exercising can improve men's health. Just think of the benefits of exercising. Men can increase their heart muscle, fight off diseases and be in a better mood, making others around feeling more comfortable.

Steven Johnson is interested in maintaining a vital, active, and healthy lifestyle. For information and products pertaining to obesity and diabetes along with other life-enhancing nutrients please visit his website Alternative Health Supplements.

Burn More Calories With Interval Training

The basic weight loss nuts and bolts behind cardiovascular exercise (or any kind of exercise, really) is, as you know, a matter of catabolism.

Essentially, if you can engineer your body to require more energy, your body will comply by breaking cells down to deliver it; and that process (metabolism) burns calories. Simple, right?

So based on that logic, something called interval training neatly fits in with the overall plan. Interval training is simply a adding high-energy burning component to your exercise plan on an infrequent, or interval, basis.

For example, you may be at a stage where you can jog for 20 minutes every other day, and thus put your heart into a cardiovascular zone during this time.

This, obviously, is going to help you boost your metabolism and thus burn calories/energy. Yet you can actually burn disproportionately more calories if, during that 20 minute jog, you add a 30 second or 1 minute sprint.

Why? Because during this 30 seconds or 1 minute, you give your body a bit of a jolt.

Not an unhealthy jolt; remember, we’re talking about quick bursts here, not suddenly racing around the track or through the park! By giving your body an interval jolt, it automatically – and somewhat unexpectedly – has to turn things up a notch.

And to compensate for your extra energy requirements, the body will burn more calories.

It’s essential for you to always keep in mind that interval training only works when it’s at intervals. This may seem like a strange thing to say (and even difficult to understand), but it’s actually very straightforward.

The metabolism-boosting benefits that you enjoy as a result of interval training are primarily due to the fact that your body, suddenly, needs to find more energy.
While it was chugging along and supplying your energy needs during your cardiovascular exercising, it all of a sudden needs to go grab some more for 30 seconds or a minute; and in that period, it will boost your metabolism as if it were given a nice, healthy jolt.

As you can see, if you suddenly decided to extend your 30 second or 1 minute sprint into a 20 minute sprint, you simply wouldn’t experience all of the benefits.

Yes, your body would use more energy if you extend yourself to the higher range of your aerobic training zone. But your body won’t necessarily get that jolt that only comes from interval training.

So remember: your goal with interval training is to give your body a healthy jolt.

For more info on interval training and calories burning, go to this link: Turbulence Trainining Exercises.

High Reps Build Muscle Big Time!

If you were to ask a million bodybuilders / weight trainers, or read thousands of "muscle building" articles, or picked up almost every book ever written on the quickest way for natural trainers to gain weight fast (quality weight, of course), 99% of them will tell you that lower repetitions during sets, 10 reps or less, will build more muscle mass than any weight training program that requires you to use higher reps.

This philosophy has been around for decades, and , has lead to the undeniable truth that lower reps are not the best way to build muscle without the use of anabolic steroids. If it were, then why don't we see millions more of "muscle heads" walking around in every day life? There are millions and millions of individuals that are very dedicated to their workouts, yet most have nothing to really show for it. Sure, they may be getting stronger, but they aren't getting bigger in size.....and there's a huge difference between the two.

Unlike what most think and say, the two are not one and the same.

Case in point: According to The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, in a study titled "Muscular adaptations to combinations of high and low intensity resistance exercises", Japanese scientists had trainers separate into two different weight lifting groups:

1) A strength training group

2) A mixed-training group

They had both of them follow your typical workout routine:

* 5 sets per exercise / 3-5 reps per set / 3 minutes rest between sets

The change came in the mixed group. Once they were done, they then went on ahead and did 1 set of 25-30 reps 30 seconds immediately after they were done with the last set. The results were interesting, to say the least.

As reported, not only did the mixed group continue to make in muscle mass while the strength training group had a slight loss in muscle mass. In addition, the mixed training group gained about 5% greater 1-rep max strength than the other group.

Now, not that you should place all of your weight training philosophy faith on one study. But this just adds to all of the real world proof that clearly demonstrates that if you are after pure muscle building or weight gain.....not necessarily pure power or strength, you have to up the amount of reps you perform per set. Higher reps provide a ton of muscle building factors that lower reps don't, such as longer time under tension, lactic acid build up, greater blood pumps, so on and so forth.

Keep all of this in mind the next time you are tempted into only worrying about how much you are lifting instead of for how many times. Always be sure to remember that if you are a naturally skinny individual that strength gaining is not your main goal. Your main focus to gain weight and build muscle. In order to do this, you'll have to structure your weight training routine and calorie eating to be able to accomplish this. I'll say it again, this one factor alone is one of the main reasons millions of weight lifters never reach the physique they work so hard to attain.

The weight training misconceptions don't stop here. If you want to read more articles dealing with the real way to train and eat for muscle building / weight gaining purposes, go here: Fast or Slow Reps To Build Muscle & Gain Weight?