Author: Craig Nybo.

You can lose weight quickly. You can shed fat from your belly and under your arms with rigorous but smart exercise. You can get a lean, athletic build. You can even show off your muscles by losing that pesky layer of fat that obscures your tone and definition. It is not a matter of training for hours on end every day. It is a matter of making every minute of your exercise as efficient as possible. When training your heart while shooting for fast calorie loss, interval based cardio training is the key.

Low Intensity Vs. High Intensity Cardio Training
There are two camps when it comes to cardio training; one buys into the low intensity philosophy. They say, walk, don’t run. The high intensity people, on the other hand, say run, don’t walk. Lets explore both arguments.

It is true that, during low intensity cardio exercise, such as walking or light biking, more calories are burned directly from fat. The only problem is, with low intensity cardiovascular exercise, your overall calorie burn isn’t enough to truly make a difference in your overall weight loss and body fat reduction.

High intensity cardio training, on the other hand, burns many more calories in a much shorter time period. Some fitness enthusiasts take this to the extreme by pushing themselves as fast and as far as they possibly can. A competitive athlete might sprint flat out for as long as possible, increasing his or her distance and time on the track with every workout. This method works well for some, but is not practical for all.

Tools For Effective Interval Based Cardio Training
Interval based cardiovascular training is a more sensible method of burning a high volume of calories in a short time period. To train with cardio intervals, you will need two things: a heart rate monitor and your maximum heart rate (MHR). Your MHR relates to your age and sex. You can get your MHR by using the following calculations:

For men: MHR = 202 - (.55 x age)
For women: MHR = 216 - (1.09 x age)

These calculations are the results of research conducted at John Moores University in Liverpool in 2007. Research results were reported in the Int J Sports Med 2007; 24.

To practice, lets calculate the MHR for both a 36-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman.

A 36-year-old man calculates his MHR with this equation: 202 - (.55 x 36) = 182.

A 28-year-old-woman calculates her MHR with this equation: 216 - (1.09 x 28) = 185.

Once you have calculated your MHR, you will need a heart rate monitor. You can purchase an inexpensive model from any sporting goods store or from an online vendor. With all the right tools in place, you are ready to workout using interval based cardiovascular training.

Using Interval Based Cardio Training
Any cardiovascular exercise will do. You can run, speed-walk, bike, stair-step, work on an elliptical, jump rope, or any other from cardio exercise. High impact cardio exercise such as running can be harmful on the ankles and knees over time. You might consider using low impact exercises like biking or elliptical to guard against unnecessary wear and tear on the body.

Interval based cardio training breaks your workout into sections (intervals) of time. These intervals alternate between low intensity and high intensity. Your heart rate during exercise acts as a guide to tell you when to switch from low intensity to high intensity mode or from high intensity back to low intensity mode. To exercise using interval based cardio training, follow the eight steps below:

1. Put on your heart rate monitor and begin exercise. Start with one to two minutes of exercise at a light, warm up speed.

2. After a short warm up, kick it in gear. Push yourself as hard as you can. Keep an eye on your heart monitor. Your goal is to hit around 80% of your MHR. If you MHR is 185, you should shoot for 148 to 160 or so.

3. Once you hit 80% of your MHR, maintain your current intensity/speed to keep your heart rate at 80% of your MHR for one minute.

4. At the one-minute mark, drop the intensity of your exercise. Your goal is to drop your heart rate by twenty beats per minute. If, during your high intensity interval, you kept your heart rate at 148 (80% of your MHR), you should shoot for a heart rate at around 128 during your low intensity interval.

5. Maintain your low exercise intensity to keep your heart rate at 20 less than 80% of your MHR for one minute.

6. After a minute of low intensity exercise, kick it in again to raise your heart rate to 80% of your MHR.

7. Continue this pattern, alternating between a high intensity interval for one minute and a low intensity interval for one minute for as long as you like.

8. Finish your interval based workout with a one to two minute, low intensity cool down.

Usually twenty minutes of interval based cardiovascular exercise is enough to keep your metabolism pumping, to lose weight, and to keep your heart in good condition. You should experiment with the frequency and length of your interval based training. Put yourself a cardiovascular exercise schedule for two weeks, perhaps working out for 20 minutes on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Weigh yourself at the beginning of your schedule and again at the end. If, while maintaining a healthy diet, you have not lost weight, try increasing the length or frequency of your cardiovascular workouts. You should see a weight loss difference; if you don’t you need to change your routine until you get on a steady fat loss track. With some experimentation, you will find your way to obtaining a slim, athletic body.

About the Author:
Craig Nybo is the president of TOTALhuman.com, a company dedicated to improving YOUR quality of life with advanced, highly efficient exercise programs.

Author: April Kerr.

OK, so sweat isn’t particularly the nicest of topics to talk about. People spend vast amounts of money on deodorants to stop themselves from sweating. It’s no wonder either because sweating can turn smelly and make our clothes wet and uncomfortable to wear. The thing is though that our bodies need to sweat in order to be able to keep in good health.

But why should this be? Sweating is so horrible, surely it can’t be good for you? Well, the reason we sweat is because humans need to intake water for a variety of reasons. Water is essential for tissues and cells in our body and it allows important elements such as salt and sugar to be transported throughout the body. Besides these reasons, water also acts as our bodies own thermostat so that you can keep to the optimum temperature for health.

In order for your body to be able to maintain your body in equilibrium you’re body goes through the process of homeostasis. To be able to do this body temperature is extremely important. If the temperature of your body becomes too high you experience a fever and even heat stroke. When your body gets too cold then you suffer from chills. Both of these conditions should be avoided in order to stay healthy.

Also perspiration isn’t the primary method of homeostasis it’s very important for body temperature control. When we exercise all the different chemical reactions increase in speed which causes the internal temperature of your body to increase. Your body is always aiming for equilibrium which is about 98.6F/37C. Sweating causes the heat to be carried out from your body through the skin.

It’s also said that by sweating you are expelling lots of toxins from your body so it’s important that you do some exercising that is designed to make you sweat. There are so many different types of exercise that allows you to do this. Cycling, running, rowing, boxing and weightlifting all allow you to achieve this.

In addition to sweating out toxins you’re body also releases many different good hormones that increase your levels of happiness. This is why some people exercise instead of taking anti-depressants. There have been many studies on the effects of exercise and one of them found that people with gastroenteritis (GI) have had their symptoms greatly reduced when they have been exercising more. How you choose to get more exercise is up to you. Some people like to join a gym whilst others prefer to go hill walking and enjoy the outdoors.

About the Author:
April Kerr is keen on exercise and has created website Best Elliptical Trainers which has details of Reebok elliptical trainers and Schwinn elliptical trainers.

Author: Craig Nybo.

happier by making a few easy decisions in your life. Below are ten tips to get you started.

1. Lift weights. An effective strength-training regimen adds lean muscle mass to your body. Each pound of lean muscle mass burns, on the average, 13 calories a day; that means, if you gain an additional ten pounds of lean muscle, you will burn an extra 130 calories per day.

2. Do cardiovascular exercise. Perform 20-minutes of interval-based cardio exercise three times a week. Interval training means varying the intensity of exercise throughout your workout. Pick the cardiovascular exercise of your choice; running, biking, and elliptical are good options. Alternate the intensity of exercise throughout your workout, 2-minutes of fast, high-intensity exercise followed by 2-minutes of low-intensity exercise.

3. Drink plenty of water. You lose, on the average, 64 ounces of water a day in sweat and urine. It seems counter-intuitive, but the less water you drink, the more water you retain. The more water you retain, the more bloated you will look and feel. Drink at least a half-gallon of water every day. Keep a bottle of water at your desk while you work. Sip as you go.

4. Quit sugar soda. Americans consume one-quarter of their daily caloric need from sugar sodas. Soda has no nutritional value. Not only that, it can be harmful. Ramachandran Vasan, MD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine recently stated that, “Even one soda per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 50%.” Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders–elevated waist circumference, higher levels of fats in the blood, and a drastic reduction in good cholesterol–that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Rather than drinking sugar soda, opt for no-calorie diet drinks, or drop soda altogether and replace it will water.

5. Reduce simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are found in foods like white bread, candy, cake and ice cream. They are absorbed into the blood stream directly through the intestinal lining and are rapidly converted into glucose at the rate of 30 calories per minute. The body responds by producing high levels of insulin to regulate the blood sugar. This can cause your body to experience energy spikes, followed by energy lows. Complex carbohydrates, found in whole grain breads, oats, rice, and vegetables, are converted to blood glucose at only two calories per minute. Sticking to complex carbs drops the level of calories converted to fat and regulates your energy levels.

6. Eat breakfast. Researchers at the National Weight Control Registry studied 3,000 people who successfully lost weight and kept it off. Most of these people stated that they eat breakfast every day as a weight control strategy. Breakfast starts your body’s metabolic system early in the day and fights hunger well into the afternoon. Eating breakfast also prevents many adverse effects that come from fasting, such as irritability and fatigue.

7. Set and achieve goals. Never live a day without a written goal. A good goal should have three characteristics; it should be realistic, it should have a deadline, and it should be written down. To lose one pound a week for twelve weeks is an excellent goal as long as it is written down.

8. Reward yourself. Life is full of triumphs; some are substantial; others are small; none are insignificant. Reward yourself for each accomplishment. Take yourself out to lunch or buy something nice. Think about how your accomplishments affect your life for the better. This will cause you to focus on the things you do to better your life and the lives of your friends.

9. Spend time with friends and family. By spending at least a few minutes a day to strengthen relationships, perhaps with a telephone call to an old friend or a birthday card to a family member, you give a little bit of yourself away. And the more you give, the more you receive in love, support and acknowledgement for all the wonderful things you are.

10. Meditate. A recent study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison sent 25 corporate Americans to an 8-week meditation coarse. After completing the course, subjects showed, on the average, a 5% increase in antibodies–some even showed a 25% increase. Researchers were surprised to see a 50% increase in electrical activity in parts of the brain associated with positive emotions and anxiety. The speed of life moves at a fever pitch. It’s essential to find a place where you can set everything aside and reboot your mind so you can stay effective.

About the Author:
Craig Nybo is the president of www.TOTALhuman.com, a company dedicated to improving YOUR quality of life with advanced, highly efficient exercise programs. http://www.totalhuman.com

Author: Phoenix Delray .

thought of going to the gym to lift weights or jog on the treadmill. After a hard days work, the gym is one place you don’t even want to think about. Sometimes, even the thought of exercising at home with your own equipment can be less than desirable, which is why many people in San Diego and other cities all over the world turn to personal trainers to stay motivated.

Sometimes, just trying to get and stay motivated to exercise on a regular basis can be a challenge. No matter how you look at it, exercise can be downright boring and even tedious at times.

So, you may be wondering just how you can get the motivation you need to exercise on a regular basis. If you’ve been wondering what you can do to make exercise more fun, you’ll find some ideas below that just may help to make exercise more fun and a little bit easier.

First things first, you should exercise with a friend. You can challenge each other, help each other out, keep each other motivated and on track, make each other laugh or just make a game out of your exercise programs.

You can also try something different. If you go to the gym each and every day and use the same piece of equipment or use the same piece of equipment at home, you should try mixing things up, and your personal trainer can help you. Reverse your routine or just change the order of your exercises.

Go to a city park that has playground equipment and use the slide, climb on the monkey bars, do pull ups, hang from your knees, just let your imagination guide you. You don’t always need to follow a strict routine, just get out there and have fun working your muscles.

An outdoor circuit in the park is also something you can try. There are some parks that have circuit courses set up with a planned course where all you have to do is walk or jog to each station and then follow the instructions. If there isn’t a planned course, then you should do a combination of jogging and walking, picking a distance of a couple hundred feet. Jog 100 feet then drop and do a couple of pushups, walk the next 100 feet and then drop to do sit ups.

You can also ride a bike around your neighborhood or hike on a hiking trail. A walk in the park or around your neighborhood is also a great way to get some exercise. Doing yoga in the park or on a beach is also a nice and relaxing way to exercise both your body and your mind.

Playing a competitive sport is also something you can try. A lot of cities have team activities such as softball, volleyball, tennis, soccer, and so on. These types of activities will not only provide you with good exercise but they will also help you to meet new people as well.

When you exercise, try to picture your muscles getting bigger. Research has shown that if you focus all of your thoughts on the muscles that you are working, they will respond better. Try to watch them work with each repetition as your muscles contract and relax.

As you can tell, there are plenty of ways you can make exercise more fun and interesting. You don’t need to follow the same routine day after day, as you can do many other things to get in some exercise.

The important thing is that you should always try to incorporate exercise in any various form into your everyday life and make these habits the kind of habits that will last a lifetime, and your personal trainer is the perfect person to help you develop them.

About the Author:
Always consult with a a professional fitness consultant like the Personal Trainer San Diegobefore you begin a new training regimen. For more information about exercise and staying healthy please the website.