My Top 3 Secret Exercises to Melt the Fat

5 is a magic number. I follow 5 tips to fat loss and I am doing 5 sets in my pyramid strength training routine this month. But I am only going to give you my top 3 secret exercises to melt the fat. These 3 fat loss gems are nothing spectacular. There is nothing new or earth-shattering about them. You do not need fancy equipment or top of the line products. Doing these 3 exercises will produce excellent fat loss results when combined with a spectacular menu and a regular cardio program.

Exercise #1 - The Squat

The squat is an excellent compound exercise. It is one of my favorite exercises because it really works the quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. There are many variations of the standard squat exercise. For example, there is the front squat, sissy squat, hack squat, full squat, split squat, single-leg squat and a few more. What ever variation you choose is up to you. They all work the thigh muscles and are effective.

Here is how a regular squat is performed:

Starting Position: Begin with both feet under the hips. Hands are relaxed by your sides. You may choose to hold free weights for extra intensity.

The Movement: Slowly lower as though you were going to sit in a chair on the inhale. Keep your back flat and eyes forward. Try to keep the bulk of your body weight on your heels. Lower all the way down until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Hold here for a few seconds before slowly rising back to the starting position as you exhale.

Notes: Some variations of the squat will have different directions. In any case, have with a professional watch your form and critique your movement.

Exercise #2 - The Bench Press

The bench press is another classic. It may be one of the best known exercises of all time. The bench press is also compound exercise. It works multiple muscles at once. It works the chest, the shoulders and the triceps. You can do this exercise on an incline, decline or on a flat bench. Some people even use a stability ball instead of the bench. Just be sure you feel comfortable and have balance at all times.

Here is how a flat bench press is performed:

Starting Position: Begin by lying on a flat bench. Your legs should be relaxed and feet planted on the floor. Lift the barbell from the holding rack. Your arms are stretched out, but not over-extended.

The Movement: Slowly lower the barbell to your chest as you inhale. Hold for a second or two. On the exhale slowly lift back to start.

Notes: Be careful not to arch your lower back on this exercise. Just use your chest and arm muscles to perform the reps. Also, you should not allow the barbell to bounce off your chest as your bring the weight down. Always use a spotter.

Exercise #3 - Plank Pose

The plank pose is one of my all-time favorite abdominal exercises. I learned about it as I was becoming certified to teach yoga. This simple, yet amazingly effective, exercise has had a special place in my heart ever since then. The plank pose targets the abdominus sheath that runs down our mid-section. Strengthening this muscle helps our posture and balance. It also provides extra support for our lower back. As if those reasons were not enough, the plank pose is famous for strengthening the muscle that holds in our gut!

Here is how the plank pose is performed:

Starting Position: Begin on all fours. Your hands should be under your shoulders and your knees should be directly under your hips.

The Movement: On the exhale, move from all fours to a regular push up position. Continue to breathe regularly as you hold that position as long as you can. Pull your belly button into your spine and keep your back flat. Stop immediately or lift your backside into the air a bit should you feel lower back pain.

Notes: This exercise works the whole body. Just keep breathing and keep the back flat. Your arms will most likely get tired first. Count how long you can hold the pose and try to hold it a bit longer the next time.

These three exercises are some of my favorites. They all work various muscle groups and have multiple variations. These exercises should be combined with a regular cardio routine and a great eating plan. Diets do not work. Find a menu that works for you and includes carbs, proteins and healthy fats. Always consult with your doctor before beginning a workout routine or change in lifestyle.

Copyright 2006 strength-training-woman.com

Lynn VanDyke is the head trainer at http://www.strength-training-woman.com . Her wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat, comes complete with over 100 exercises, 160 daily menus, 63 ways to stick with it, 100 strength training routines, 800 healthy meal suggestions and loads more. Learn more by visiting: http://www.Melt-the-Fat.com

Identify the First Signs of Alopecia

The medical phrase for having your hair fall out is alopecia. The most recorded type of hair loss is male pattern baldness and hits nearly a third of males and girls. This sort of baldness is typically forever.

Permanent hair loss comes in a number of ways. Male pattern baldness might happen in the extraordinarily early stages of a gents life, with hair loss and baldness starting as early as 21 years old. The usual symptoms might often include loss and baldness of hair follicles around the top part of the scalp and furthermore at the hairline above the forehead. The result can be partial or full total baldness. Check out the latest hair loss treatments at Advanced Hair Studio.

Female pattern baldness is nearly similar to male pattern baldness resulting in permanent hair follicle loss. This kind of hair loss and baldness is usually developed after a mother gives birth to her child. The hormone imbalance creates hair loss although ladies do not generally experience total hair loss.

The last sort of permanent hair loss is through Cicatricial. This occurs when inflammation in the scalp starts scaring and the hair follicles fall out forever and never come back. The guy will probably lose hair in random sections of the scalp, or even spread all over the scalp.

With forever hair loss the good solution for abounding people might be to seek help with a hair loss studio in order to gain back confidence.

The Promises and Lies of Nicotine

Nicotine is a main component of cigarettes and a huge reason why
we keep on reaching for those “poison sticks.” Let’s just be
blunt: nicotine is a drug, and it is very easy to get hooked.
Once nicotine addiction becomes part of your life it is
extremely difficult to shake it off and get back to normal.

Most people wrongly think that it is only narcotic drugs that
are addictive. This is a very wrong notion indeed. Nicotine too
is as addictive as any narcotic.

Just like any other drug, it quickly worms its way into your
life and takes control. You may not realize it at first, but
slowly and surely you’ll start to feel the effects. Everything
you do is tinged by your nicotine addiction.

I know what it’s like. For every problem in your life, nicotine
seems to promise a solution:

If you feel stressed, you reach for your cigarettes, thinking
that you need a hit in order to calm your mind and find your
center.

If you’re tired, you reach for your cigarettes, knowing that
they will give you that extra buzz you need in order to stay
awake and alert.

If you’re upset, you reach for your cigarettes, hoping that
they will cheer you up and put you in better spirits.

The truth is, cigarettes and nicotine don’t solve any of these
problems. YOU are the only one capable of doing that, and you
don’t need nicotine to help.

If you’re stressed, find healthy alternatives to ease your mind
and relax your body. Our bodies and brains are equipped to
handle stress; we don’t need any drugs to come in and handle it
for us. Moreover, if you use nicotine to try and defuse feelings
of anxiety, you’re only making your body’s natural stress
defenders weaker and more drug dependent.

If you’re tired, go to sleep! The body craves sleepusually
about 8 hours a night for most people. Puffing away when you’re
tired doesn’t really perk up the brain, even though it may feel
that way. When you smoke, the alkaloids in the cigarette send
stimulating signals to the brain, giving you the sensation of
being more alert, at least temporarily. But in the long run,
these alkaloids are doing serious damage to your body’s ability
to rest and recuperate.

And if you’re upset, reaching for cigarettes isn’t the answer.
The nicotine may give you a quick rush, boosting your spirits
for a little while. But the human body does not need any
external drugs in order to feel great. Think about the way you
feel after a good, long laugh with a friend, or after a workout
session! Those natural endorphins are a stronger, healthier and
purer source of happiness than any artificial drug.

The bottom line: your body comes naturally equipped with
everything you need to handle any situation. Don’t rely on
nicotine to see you throughyou can handle it on your own!

10 Reasons to Choose NaProTechnology Over InVitro Fertilization

For couples that are experiencing infertility, the desire to have a child can be overwhelming. Every month that passes is another missed opportunity. Depression, grief, sadness, and despair eventually set in and at some point most couples become desperate enough to gamble with tens of thousands of dollars on expensive procedures like InVitro Fertilization (IVF) without fully understanding what they are getting themselves into. For the vast majority of couples who try IVF, false hopes turn false, and things that sound too good to be true prove to be so.

Before you decide to spend your precious savings on IVF or any of its latest forms such as Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) you owe it to yourself to find out more about NaProTechnology (NPT), a medically sound and scientifically supported approach to treating the cause of your infertility. “NaPro” means “natural-procreative” and as the name implies, it refers to the application of diagnostic and medical technologies toward achieving pregnancy “the natural way” through intercourse as opposed to a laboratory procedure.

Here are 10 reasons to choose NPT rather than IVF:

1. NaProTechnology Focuses on Disease

If a couple cannot get pregnant, it makes sense that the first thing the doctor must do is to find out why. This is THE goal of the complete NPT program. With IVF, the cause of infertility is not important and in the underlying problem it is completely ignored.

2. Success Rates are Better with NaProTechnology

Recent data from the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, NE, show that NaProTechnology success rates are 1.5 to 3 times better than IVF (23.5% versus 38.4%-81.8%). In a 4 year study of 95 NPT couples who had been trying to conceive for an average of 6.1 years and had 176 failed attempts at an Artificial Reproductive Technique (ART) Boyle[1] reported that there were 123 conceptions. Life table analysis demonstrated increasing success the longer that couples remained in the NPT program with 26.2% pregnant at 12 to 17 months rising to 32.6% at 18-25 months.

3. Destruction of Embryos

An analysis of ART data[2] from 1983 to 1986 demonstrated that the transfer of 1,372 embryos (3.2 per woman) resulted in 81 live births. From this data, it is necessary to create 16.9 living embryos to produce one live birth. The higher reported rates of success for IVF procedures usually means more embryos are being transferred which increases the risk of multiple births.

4. Infanticide: “Selective Reduction”

One of the most objectionable things about IVF is that it can result in a situation where a woman is forced to deal with a dangerously high multiple pregnancy rate. Pregnancy risk increases dramatically with the number of babies in the womb. Frequently, women are compelled to selectively “reduce” (i.e., kill) additional babies in the womb due to unacceptably high pregnancy risk.

5. Natural Sex versus a Laboratory Procedure

In IVF, the sperm and eggs (gametes) are collected through masturbation (male) and harvesting (female) where they meet in a laboratory to form embryos which are then reintroduced into the woman’s body. NPT, on the other hand, relies on a natural act of intercourse to achieve pregnancy.

6. NaProTechnology is more cost effective

According to Collins[3], the median cost of one cycle of IVF in the United States in 2001 is $9,226. $20-30,000 expenses are not unheard of, however, because IVF clinics prefer to sell discount packages (multiple cycles) in order to increase success rates and allow for “shared” risk. In comparison, at one medical center in Duarte, CA (Santa Teresita), NPT has been cited as costing approximately $9,290 which includes a physician evaluation, hormone and ultrasound evaluation, and outpatient surgical treatment of infertility.

7. Pregnancy Outcomes

There is growing concern that IVF may have significant adverse effects on the children conceived with this procedure. In a study of birth defects after ICSI and IVF procedures, Hansen et al.[4] reported that ICSI and IVF babies were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with a major birth defect by the end of one year of life (8.6% and 9.0%) as compared to naturally conceived babies (4.2%).

8. You could get pregnant again!

Because natural fertility is restored with NPT, these couples are often able to get pregnant again. In the Boyle study[1] of 89 births in women who had failed ART, there were 14 women with 2 live births, and 1 woman with 3 live births. Since IVF does nothing to correct the cause of infertility, there is no benefit toward subsequent pregnancies.

9. What will you have to show for it?

Ironically, in some cases IVF procedures cause additional harm to the female reproductive system in the course of treatment. For example, some IVF clinics will perform surgical removal of a blocked and swollen fallopian tube in order to increase success rates[5]. In these cases, when IVF fails, fallopian tube repair is no longer an option. This approach is contrary to the natural and restorative orientation of the NPT physician and surgeon[6]. NPT is designed to restore (not destroy) reproductive function. If nothing else, NPT couples have had the underlying cause of the problem addressed which often results in better overall health.

10. What happens after you get pregnant?

This is perhaps the most important question. Frequently, couples who pursue IVF have not thought about what happens next. Success equals pregnancy. Unfortunately, ignoring the underlying problem that leads to infertility in the first place can adversely affect the pregnancy and even lead to miscarriage. With NPT, restoring health and fertility begins before conception and continues throughout the pregnancy with the aim of preventing miscarriage and promoting the optimum health of the newborn baby and mother.

References

1. Boyle, P., NaProTechnology (NPT) - After previously unsuccessful Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART). 2004.

2. Cvetkovich, L.L., The reproductive technologies: A scientific overview, in The gift of life: The proceedings of a national conference on the Vatican instruction on reproductive ethics and technology, M. Wallace and T. Hilgers, Editors. 1990, Pope Paul VI Institute Press: Omaha, NE.

3. Collins, J., Cost-effectiveness of In Vitro Fertilization. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, 2001. 19: p. 279-289.

4. Hansen, M., et al., The risk of major birth defects after Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection and In Vitro Fertilization. New England Journal of Medicine, 2002. 346: p. 725-730.

5. Nackley, A.C. and S.J. Muasher, The significance of hydrosalpinx in in vitro fertilization. Fertility and Sterility, 1998. 69: p. 373-384.

6. Hilgers, T.W., The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTechnology. 2004, Omaha, NE: Pope Paul VI Institute Press.

Copyright 2006 Majella.us

David Picella helps couples who are trying to conceive naturally without the use of expensive artificial reproductive techniques. You can read more articles published by him and by other experts in this area at: http://www.majella.us

Green Tea can help You stay Healthy

When drinking green tea health risks are lowered by the fact that green tea toughens the arterial walls of blood vessels where viruses love to attach themselves to make people sick. This bacterial blocking tea leaf is also capable of fighting off mercury poisoning, and other metals that might find their way into the blood system, like cadium or lead. It’s the catechin in the green tea that is the valiant fighter, and it is centers on anything that is a toxin.

There are no green tea health risks, but people are concerned about anything that has the power to turn bad cholesterol into good, or motivate fat to be processed through the quicker. The antioxidant beverages we drink, when we consume green tea are actually taking a stance inside our bodies to save our lives one day.

The health benefits of drinking green tea beat any green tea health risks rumors that crop of here and there. When people can drink a glass of green tea and know that it might prevent them from having a stroke, or use green tea for diet, many people welcome that concept with open arms. When people hear great news like this, they are very willing to boil water and dip a tea bag immediately. Most people enjoy drinking green tea because there are so many vitamins in it.

Walking Back to Health

Walking is the most natural form of movement, and an excellent all-round mode of exercise. Yet as a nation we are walking less and less. Walking can help you to:

* Improve your general health

* Get fit and stay fit

* Control your weight

* Live longer!

Walking helps protect the body from many illnesses and conditions: heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, obesity, depression, some types of diabetes, and colon cancer.

Health experts agree that 30 minutes brisk walking on most days of the week is sufficient to improve fitness. However like a lot of things in life that we are supposed to do, daily exercise can become a chore. I know from experience that repeated exercise in the same environment can be very boring. A much more enjoyable way is to vary your walks and plan different routes. If that is beyond you, why not join a walking or rambling club and then you can walk with them in the beautiful countryside, with good company.

All you need is some sensible clothing/footwear and the price of the coach fare or transport to the start of their walks (they often encourage car sharing).

This gradual start to walking can help people who feel they are not active enough to change their day to day habits through the simple activity of walking more.

If your main aim is to lose weight, you need to use more calories through physical activity than you take in as food. This means doing as much as possible: short walks, longer walks, climbing stairs - every bit of physical activity counts toward the total number of calories burned off.

If you recovering from an illness/operation and your main aim is to increase your fitness, it is important to gradually increase the intensity of your exercise. This can be achieved by coming on a short walk or part of the C walk. Then as you improve your level of fitness you can take on a B walk and eventually an A walk. For most people, walking is a safe and effective form of exercise. However, if you have any concerns or are at all worried about your health, discuss this with your doctor.

Changing lifelong habits requires determination and courage. Walking with a group of people (a walking/rambling club) can make it much easier for the next generation by introducing them to walking early in life. Families and children are usually most welcome.

Do a search on the internet search engines for walking/rambling clubs in your local area. Make contact with them and get out and do some walking. You will ache a little the first few times, but eventually you will get stronger and fitter.

Go for it!!

Alan Hunter
Membership secretary of the Fylde Coast Ramblers
http://www.fyldecoastramblers.co.uk

An Introduction to Snoring

Someone who snores can often become the butt of jokes. But jokes aside, snoring is no laughing matter. Nearly 90 million Americans snore, most of them men, and very often snoring affects those over the age of 60.

A recent survey found that snoring is the cause of one in seven domestic disputes, and 95 percent of those questioned say they are woken by their partner’s heavy snoring at least once a week, with 39 percent being woken up every night! Another poll revealed that 80 percent of couples end up sleeping in different rooms, all because one partner can no longer tolerate sleeping next to someone that sounds like a landing strip. Besides the social ramifications of snoring, it can also have serious health effects.

Snoring consists of noisy breathing through the mouth or nose during sleep. If you are a quiet sleeper, air passes from your nose and throat to your lungs silently and unhindered. However, for millions of others, something disrupts the flow of air. Maybe it’s a blocked nose; perhaps the base of the tongue is restricting breathing. More commonly, it’s the soft tissue in your upper palate or throat that gets in the way and starts vibrating.

The reasons for snoring are many. They include poor muscle tone in the tongue and throat, sometimes due to alcohol or drugs; weight gain — extra weight around the neck can lead to snoring; colds — having a stuffy noses means you’re likely to snore; and some kind of obstruction, such as a polyp, cyst or even enlarged tonsils.

How can one stop snoring? There is no universal answer, but there are hundreds of potential solutions that may help you. There are numerous fixes for snoring, from folk traditions to home remedies and over-the-counter medications, to what might be called a face-lift for your throat. Most methods attempt to open the compressed airway, either by tightening the collapsing tissue or preventing the obstruction.

Snoring Info provides detailed information about how to stop snoring, including specific snoring cures, remedies, and treatments to help prevent snoring from disrupting your sleep, health, and relationships. Snoring Info is the sister site of Hair Loss Web.