Tag Archives: weight training

Fitness Week in Review for September 8-14, 2008

If you find yourself constantly lamenting about your age and the way you feel because of it you’ve come to the right place. This week the Fitness blog took aim at getting older and how exercise can make a huge difference in the way you live life as the years go by. Did you know moderate exercise might help stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s disease? And that building muscle mass as you age can help you both physically and mentally? Finally, if you really can’t stop dwelling about getting older consider that at 37 years old Lance Armstrong is about … Continue reading →

Why You Want to Build Muscle as You Age

Did you know that at about age 35 the average person gains roughly one-and-a-half pounds of fat each year? And while we are gaining that fat we are also losing (on average) half-a-pound of muscle per year? If that doesn’t motivate you to get moving consider that a pound of muscle burns 35 calories per day—just to stay alive, while a pound of fat burns just two calories per day. Doctors say it’s one of the downfalls of aging. Most people lose muscle and increase the fat layer in their bodies. Fat tends to move in because muscle moves out, … Continue reading →

Creating a Fitness Routine that Works for You

Fall is fast approaching. You can tell by the slight nip in the air, the myriad of school buses on city streets and the huge banners flying high outside of practically every gym in town offering huge discounts to new members. Along with January (can you say New Year’s resolution?) September is the month gym owners say they see the most visitors. With summer coming to a close and the new school year beginning many people are motivated to jump start or return to a regular fitness routine. If you have been holding off on starting a new exercise program … Continue reading →

Weight Training Linked to Weight Loss

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Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have conducted a study that proves what people like Joe Weider, Cory Everson, Bill Phillips and Monica Brant have been saying for decades. “Weight training may be as important to losing weight as aerobic exercise.” You don’t say? There are two kinds of muscle that we all have: slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type II). Aerobic training increases slow twitch while weight training increases fast twitch. Mice used in the study were overfed to become obese, insulin resistant (pre-diabetic) and develop fatty acid deposits in their liver. When a gene was … Continue reading →

Body-for-Life Day #5 Training: Upper Body

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Although the exercises are the same as the workout from Day #1, this workout should be just a little different. You’ll find that the exercises are a little bit easier every time you do them. You’ll also find that you are capable of using more weight. Perhaps not today but eventually you’ll start gaining muscle and find that the weights you began with just aren’t as challenging any more. Most women are hesitant to start weight training. If you are one of them, there are some very important things that you should be aware of: 1. Muscle burns fat. This … Continue reading →

Body for Life Workout Day #3

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I used to think that a good leg workout necessitated heavy duty equipment like a squat sled and a calf press machine. Then I discovered that a great leg workout can be had at home, or anywhere for that matter, without any specialized equipment at all. Day #3 on Body-for-Life calls for weight training for the lower body (abdominals and legs) and can be easily done at home. I’ve included the Progress Report with this blog for your convenience. Following are the exercises I suggest you try on day #3 and how you can use common household items to add … Continue reading →

Body-for-Life Workout Day #1

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We’re ready to start the Body-for-Life program! If you haven’t started with the initial Day #1 instructions in the Weight Loss Blog, please click here. Every day will begin with the Weight Loss Blog and link to the next day’s workout (in the Fitness Blog) as well as the day’s food tip in the Food Blog. The great thing about the Body-for-Life program is that you don’t need to join a gym to participate. In fact, you can do every workout in the privacy and comfort of your own home without the hassle of having to join a gym, pay … Continue reading →

Weight Doesn’t Matter

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Sometimes we get so wound up in the numbers that we forget that weight isn’t everything. What really makes a difference in how we look and feel is the amount of bodyfat on our bodies. You could weigh 98 pounds but still look fat if you had 40% bodyfat. Then again, you could weigh 180 pounds and have 20% bodyfat and be a knockout! No matter what you weigh, if your bodyfat is within a healthy range, you’ll look fantastic. The only real way to reduce bodyfat is to start a regular and productive exercise regimen and to eat healthy … Continue reading →

D is for Dumbbell

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Dumbbells – the standard name for free weights. There are a lot of jokes that used to be made about dumbbells, but we’re going to avoid those today. Typically, a dumbbell is a weight that features a short bar with a weighted disk at either end. Dumbbells can be adjusted by adding or removing weighted disks to increase or decrease the resistance that particular dumbbell offers. Dumbbells typically come in pairs because in an ideal world, you only need one hand to hold each dumbbell. The word itself comes to us via Tudor England. The bell clapper was a device … Continue reading →

Women’s Fitness: Target Your Hips

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The sad part about being a woman is that we carry most of our excess weight on our hips, tummy, thighs and bottom end. Many people think that those are the hardest areas to lose weight off of, but the truth is – anywhere you want to trim excess inches is usually the hardest area. There’s an old saying that the first place you gain weight is the last place you lose it. But today, let’s talk about our hips and trimming excess inches off of them. There are plenty of specific area exercises that you can do to target … Continue reading →