Eat very little today. In fact, starve yourself as much and as often as possible.

Follow this plan and here’s what’s going to happen. You’ll definitely lose some fat in fact your clothes may fit better as quickly as tomorrow. But, you’ll also lose muscle and when you lose muscle, you lower your metabolism. This means it will be way harder to lost fat (and easier to gain fat) tomorrow. Do this for a few days or weeks in a row and you may have some serious metabolic weaknesses to overcome. It is NOT easy to overcome metabolic weakness and until you do, you will gain fat.

Most people who diet have done this many times in their lives and for that reason people who diet have more body fat than people who don’t. This is tragic, ironic, and true. Without knowing it, most of us practice the art of daily metabolic suicide and eventually it catches up to us.

I used to practice this art on a daily basis. I would wake up almost every morning thinking that I was going to eat only chicken and vegetables. I would try to eat around 1,000 calories per day. Not only did this make my metabolism implode, it also was impossible. I would usually end my days by giving into the insane hunger pangs by eating loads of bad food. In other words, I would starve my muscle by day (WTFreak?) and would feed my fat by night (blah). I’m guessing that some of you have done the same.

Smart Version

Fortunately for all of us, there is a much better way. In order for me to learn how to lose body fat continually, I had to completely change my thinking. I had to switch my mindset from ’starving the fat off‘ to ‘increasing my metabolism as much as possible’. In all honesty this was an extremely difficult transition for me. To increase your metabolism you have to eat more calories and I did NOT want to eat more calories.

Eventually I became tired of failing. I was tired of having a lot more fat than I wanted to have and it seemed like I was only making my situation worse. I embraced a different philosophy and within a few weeks I could tell that it was working. The basic idea was to do everything I could to increase my metabolism as much as possible. I had heard that this would make it harder to gain fat and that my body would naturally decrease my fat storage if my metabolism was high enough.

Basic Concepts Behind Increasing Your Metabolism

• Eating regularly – eating something every three hours (more on this later)
• Eating slightly more calories than your body needs (yes I know how weird this sounds)
• Avoiding high calorie meals (eating more than 600 calories in a single meal will almost always make you gain fat, unless you are genetically advantaged)
• Resistance training/Lifting weights
• Regular activity

Eating Regularly

Skipping meals is a fast-pass to metabolic destruction. Eating often is a fast-pass to metabolic growth. I make sure that I eat something every three hours, even if I don’t have time for a regular meal. If I’m really in a hurry I might have a protein shake or bar but I always make sure that I eat something.

Not only does eating often help you to increase your metabolism, it also helps you to avoid eating dangerously large meals.

If I needed or wanted to gain a lot of fat, I would do it by eating two meals per day. I would skip breakfast to starve my muscle and then I would have a monster meal at around 2:00 in the afternoon. I would then starve myself again until around 11:00 p.m. and I would then have another monster meal. This would help me to lower my metabolism AND gain fat, all in the same day.

If I wanted to lose fat, I would of course need to avoid this type of behavior. I would want to keep each of my meals under 500 calories and I would want to never go more than three hours without eating.

Eating Slightly More Calories Than Your Body Needs

Here’s where it gets difficult for most people. This concept was extremely difficult for me to embrace. We all know that eating too much makes us gain fat and for that reason, it’s hard to eat more. Seems like a catch-22 right? It’s impossible to raise our metabolisms without eating more food but eating too much food makes us gain fat…

Here’s the solution to the catch-22. Let’s say you’re a female whose weight stays stable at 1200 calories per day. You are going to start by eating 1300 calories per day. It would seem like this would cause you to gain fat, right? If you didn’t change anything in your life, this might be the case. However, you’re going to offset the 100 calorie difference by lifting some weights. You can burn around 8 calories per minute lifting weights and this means you can burn off the 100 calories by lifting for 12-13 minutes. The coolest part about that is that lifting weights ALSO raises your metabolism. See where we’re going with this?

The way to really do this effectively would be to do longer lifts to burn more calories. Let’s say you could lift for 45 minutes per day. You would burn more than 300 calories per day and you would raise your metabolism even more. If you lifted for 90 minutes, you would burn more than 700 calories.

The net effect of all of this is a higher metabolism while burning fat in the process.

Avoiding High Calorie Meals

The easiest way to gain fat is by eating high calorie meals. Your body can only use so much food at a time. Eating more than 600 calories in one sitting will result in fat gain for most people. I have eaten as many as 3,000 calories in one sitting and you can imagine how that affected my fat levels. There is no way on earth your body can burn 3,000 calories all at once so it’s going to turn a lot of it into fat.

It’s a lot easier to eat meals that aren’t wicked high in calories if you eat a lot of low calorie foods. Vegetables are definitely the key to my good eating. I like to eat a lean protein like fish, chicken, shrimp, or lean beef along with a whole grain (whole grain bread, whole grain tortilla, whole grain pasta, etc.), and a healthy portion of vegetables. That way I can eat as much food as I want without eating too many calories. I can literally feel my metabolism cranking when I eat balanced, healthy meals with lots of vegetables. When I eat this way I also rarely get hungry because my body is getting everything it needs, without getting smashed by thousands of extra calories.

Resistance Training / Lifting Weights

You can really get your metabolism moving by lifting weights. Guys normally embrace this easily, girls are a tougher sale. However, the end result of lifting weights is the same for guys and girls. It increases your metabolism and helps you to remove fat.

Girls often don’t want to lift weights because they fear getting bulky. Ladies, you can honestly lift all day if you use light weights and do lots of reps. Avoid heavy weights and you will build longer, leaner muscles. Your bodies will look much leaner and smaller even though you will be stronger and more fit.

I am currently lifting six days per week. However, that wasn’t always the case. If you don’t lift weights at all you could make a huge difference by adding even two lifting sessions per week.

Regular Activity

If you rarely move your body, any physical activity will make a huge difference. You can begin by walking and add more strenuous activities later on.

I love playing tennis, basketball, and many other sports. As long as you have control of your diet, physical activity will help you to burn fat. That said, you can be super active and still gain significant amounts of fat if you are eating too many calories.

Cardiovascular exercise can also help you to burn a lot of fat. Running, biking, and other forms of cardio are great for shredding fat. However, you should never sacrifice lifting weights to do cardio because building muscle will have a greater overall effect on your fat levels over time.

The Bottom Line

Most people could lose a ton of fat over time by simply raising their activity level and avoiding huge meals. If you are already close to where you want to be, walking for 30 minutes per day can probably get you there. If you have a long way to go you will need to take a closer look at your diet. Start lifting weights and get rid of the bad foods that are taking your caloric intake to levels that are too high.

Skipping meals creates two REALLY big problems.

Problem #1 is that each and every time you skip a meal, you are murdering your metabolism. In the short term you’ll lose a few pounds by skipping meals and this might make you feel good for a few days.  However, you’re killing your ability to be fit and lean and ultimately it will catch up to you.

Before I figured this concept out, I would skip meals all the time. For me, it was an addiction. I wanted to see lower numbers on the scale and skipping meals made it easy. The problem is that your metabolism gets lower and lower until it’s impossible to stay lean. I killed my metabolism this way. During one spell I figured out that I would gain fat (and weight) by eating only 2100 calories per day, even though I’m a muscular guy that weighs close to 200 pounds. Trust me, that’s REALLY messed up! A person of my size should be able to easily eat 3000 calories per day without putting on fat (I can now eat more than this without putting on fat).

Problem #2 with skipping meals is that your body will seriously fight against it by creating insane cravings. I would starve myself and overeat – often in the same day. This might not seem possible but trust me, it is and it’s one of the most damaging things you can do to yourself. People that do this usually start off by skipping breakfast. I did this often and it was usually because I was trying to eat extremely low calories. It would of course catch up to me later in the day and I would often eat an obscene amount of calories. I couldn’t control the cravings that my body would create. Now that I understand what happens physiologically when I don’t eat, it seems almost ridiculous that this was once my lifestyle. Some people of course create the same effect by skipping lunch or dinner.

The good news is that this pitfall is easy to reverse. You can make your metabolism CRANK by eating healthy meals that consist of lean proteins, whole grains, and fibrous vegetables. Testing on my own body indicates that my metabolism is now cranking out over 1,000 calories more than it used to and I owe this to a healthy diet and exercise. I don’t go more than a few hours without eating something, even if that something is a few slices of lean turkey and some vegetables. Eating the right foods regularly will also help you to control your appetite.

2. We eat low quality foods.

This one is especially dangerous for those of us that live in the United States. We want our food to be fast and cheap and manufacturers are getting better and better at giving us exactly what we want. The problem is that fast and cheap foods are REALLY easy for our bodies to break down and this can cause all kinds of problems.

At one time, I could gain fat more quickly than almost anyone I know and the type of food I would eat was a huge contributing factor. I would start most of my days by skipping breakfast (see #1), thinking that I was going to eat a lot less calories than usual that day. By the end of the day, I would almost always end up in a fast food drive-thru, ordering low calorie food and then binging. If you do this, you can put on fat every single day. It beats down your metabolism and then overwhelms your body with low quality calories.

Higher quality food is much harder for our bodies to break down and therefore leaves us more satisfied (and less likely to eat more later in the day).

A few months ago I visited the United Kingdom and Ireland. I was shocked at how thin almost everyone was there. After I had been there for a few days, however, it was easy to see why. Food in the UK and Ireland is extremely fresh. When you order a side of veggies in a UK restaurant, they look like they were just picked from the garden outside. Bread in the UK is the most mega-ultra-grain bread I’ve ever seen. There is no doubt that the difference in food is what keeps the people over there thin.

We can ALL improve the quality of food that we eat, and when we do, we raise our metabolisms and stay more satisfied throughout the day. We can eat whole wheat grains instead of white ones, ditch the white rice, and we can avoid many of the sugars and fats that we stuff into our diets. We can eat fresh vegetables and we can even eat organic foods if we want to take this concept to the next level.

When you raise the quality level of the food you eat, it will allow you to eat MORE food without gaining fat. High quality foods will raise your metabolism and again, are harder for our bodies to break down.

3. High fructose corn syrup.

HFCS is the favorite sweetener of U.S. based food manufacturers, in fact we as Americans consume more calories from HFCS than from any other food (if you want to really call it a food).

The problem with HFCS is that it’s extremely addictive and causes more weight gain than sugar (believe it, it’s true). Elite fitness professionals have of course known this for years and fortunately, studies have been happening that prove this to be true. Recently, a team at Princeton discovered that HFCS causes more weight gain than other sweeteners, especially around the mid-section.

Interestingly, in the 40 years that HFCS has been used to sweeten foods in the U.S., the obesity rate has risen from 15% to a shocking 33%. It’s difficult of course to blame anything on a single cause, however, people who stop eating foods with HFCS almost ALWAYS gain a lot more control of their diets, weight, and body fat.

You of course don’t have to believe research to understand the addictive nature of HFCS. Eat 100 grams each day for a week and then try to stop. Trust me, it won’t be easy.

Step one in the process of getting off of HCFS is to replace it with table sugar. Table sugar is significantly less addictive. This of course will generally mean that you will need to make your own treats, since HFCS is in almost everything nowadays. Ultimately, sugar isn’t a great food either but it’s much much better than HFCS.

4. We eat ultra refined carbs.

In reality, HFCS is but one of many refined carbs that we love to eat. We eat white bread, white rice, white tortillas, and sugars by the boat load and these foods are AWESOME at making us gain fat.

Refined carbs are extremely addictive for me and until I understood that fact my diet was always out of control. At one time, I thought that it was beyond impossible to stop eating sweets and many other foods. Switching to whole grains made eating right 100% easier, in fact most of my sugar cravings went away when I switched to whole grains.

These carbs cause our blood sugar levels to spike because they can be broken down easily by our digestive systems. Many of these foods can go from our mouths to our blood streams in 10 minutes. High blood sugar is of course toxic to our bodies so we release insulin to clear these carbs out. For the most part, our bodies turn those carbs directly into fat.

On top of all of that, many of our bodies are terrible at controlling the amount of insulin that is released during this process. Our bodies release too much and this causes our blood sugar levels to dip too low. Our bodies then think that we are starving (we need a certain level of blood sugar to function) so it creates insatiable cravings for more carbs (sugars and unrefined flours/rices). This is what we call carbohydrate addiction.

This of course can all be controlled if we stay away from refined carbs. Whole wheat breads and brown rice are much harder to shove into our blood streams. Small amounts of carbs trickle into our blood streams – it can take hours for this process to happen. This leaves us satisfied for longer periods of time and more importantly, our blood sugar levels don’t spike up.

5. We consume ridiculous amounts of fats.

Food manufacturers (restaurants especially) LOVE to load their foods with fats. They do this because fat tastes AWESOME. More fat will make almost any food taste better. Whether sweet or salty, foods will have more flavor with high amounts of fats. The problem with fat is its emptiness. Fat is extremely high in calories.

Many people eat thousands of calories of fat without knowing it. Many restaurant salads have more than 1500 calories because of high fat dressings, cheeses, sauces, and meats.

Fast food is especially dangerous when it comes to fat content. A Big Mac from Mcdonalds has 29 grams of fat and that’s a monstrous 260 calories from fat. Fat doesn’t take up much space in your stomach so you have to eat a lot of food to feel satisfied. The calories we can consume this way can be astronomical and when we consume more calories than our bodies need, we gain fat.

6. We are inactive

We gain fat when we consume more calories than our bodies need. Unfortunately, many of us are really inactive so our bodies don’t need many calories. Most people could make significant, positive changes to their bodies by walking for as little as 30 minutes per day. Walking of course uses calories in the short term and raises metabolism in the long term.

Weight training is of course a fantastic way to promote leanness for men and women. Lifting weights does a remarkable job at raising the amount of calories our bodies use during the day. A one hour lifting session each morning can raise your metabolic rate by as many as 1000 calories per day. Many women of course worry that lifting weights will make them appear bulky but in reality the effect is almost always the opposite. Women become leaner and therefore smaller when they train with weights.

Playing sports, hiking, and engaging in other activities will of course also help you to improve your fitness level by increasing your body’s calorie needs.

7. We get stressed

Food is comforting for many people and we’re often unaware that we turn to food when we get stressed. Usually this happens on the subconscious level. I personally turned to food for comfort for years without realizing it – this didn’t come to my attention until I started trying to keep track of how many calories I was eating on a daily basis.

After I started counting calories, I decided to try to get control of my binging and overeating. This all helped me to realize that I sometimes craved foods like brownies, cakes, doughnuts, and ice cream when I was stressed. I never consciously thought that these foods would make me feel less stress, I simply craved them when I was stressed – it happened subconsciously.

Truth be told, this still happens to me. A few weeks ago I had to give a presentation to a few hundred people and got pretty stressed out. I ended up eating 1100 calories worth of brownies in less than 20 minutes. This of course did the trick and helped me to feel better in the short term but most definitely caused me to gain fat. While I do mess up from time to time, I have learned how to control these binges and for the most part, avoid them. Understanding what happens to our fat levels when we binge can help us to want to avoid binging.

8. Depression

Like stress, depression can cause us to turn to food for comfort. For many of us, dealing with our emotional difficulties can help us to improve our bodies.

Exercise of course has also been proven to help with depression.

9. We age

Our metabolism slows down with age. This means that as we get older, our bodies don’t need as many calories. Eating the same number of calories as we did when we were younger can cause us to gain fat. However, this effect can be greatly helped by increasing our levels of activity. Go for walks and hikes. Learn how to play tennis. Play sports with your kids or grand kids.

Age is of course something that we cannot control. However, we have complete control over what we eat and over our level of activity.

Fortunately, our metabolisms aren’t going to drastically change overnight – it’s a gradual process. For most people, they gain fat with age mostly because they become more inactive with age, not because of the small drop in their metabolic rates.

10. Hormonal imbalances

There are MANY hormonal imbalances that can affect our fat levels. Here are a few of them:

1. Over-production of cortisol.
2. Under-production of testosterone (in men and women).
3. Under-production of thyroid hormone.
4. Over production of estrogen (in men and women).

Research shows that the ridiculous levels of hormones in our food supplies can really mess with the natural hormone levels in our bodies. This of course affects some people a lot more than others. This may cause your thyroid to under-produce thyroid hormone which would drastically stunt your metabolic rate. If your body doesn’t produce enough testosterone it may be extremely difficult to get lean.

Some of you may find out that you need to have some testing done by an endocrinologist to determine whether your hormone levels are within the normal ranges. If they aren’t, this could be causing you to gain fat.

11. Lack of understanding

Ultimately, we are responsible for gaining fat. Many people would argue that they simply don’t know how to stop gaining fat. I would argue that we can each learn how to control our bodies.

If we don’t understand how many calories we can eat without gaining weight, it’s going to be hard to not gain weight. If we don’t understand the triggers that cause us to overeat, it’s going to be hard to not overeat. If we don’t know which foods are extremely high in calories, it’s going to be really difficult to not eat too many calories. If we don’t understand how to raise our metabolisms, we will probably have low metabolisms.

In order to stop gaining fat and get lean, we first need to learn what it will require. We need to learn about our bodies, about food, and about activities that will promote leanness.

12. Genetics

Many people are of course genetically disadvantaged. For these people, gaining fat can happen quickly. There are a few different ways that people can be genetically disadvantaged:

1. They can have naturally slow metabolisms.
2. They can have overactive cravings for foods, causing them to overeat.
3. They can have a genetic disposition toward inactivity.

We have no control over the genetic makeup of our bodies. However, we can make changes that can help us to stay lean despite them. I for one gain fat very easily in fact there have been multiple occasions in my life where I have gained more than 10 pounds of pure fat in less than one month. If I kept that up it would be an amazing 120 pounds per year. I am not naturally lean – my genetic code tries to make me fat every day of my life. I have learned how to combat my genetics by learning about food and exercise and during that process, I have learned how to take advantage of the genetic advantages that I have.

I believe that almost every person can be lean. If you learn about how food and exercise affect your body, you can stop it from gaining fat and you can then help it to drop fat. It can be much easier than you think!

The balls come in three regular sizes:  22 inch, 26 inch and 30 inch.  When used, the ball should be well-filled with air and not spongy and soft.  Other exercise gear is also recommended for exercise ball workouts:  Floor mat, light dumbbells, ankle weights and a balance board.  Equipped thus, a complete body workout is available.  An exercise routine using the ball can be developed to suit your own needs and fitness level.  There are online videos and charts that can assist in setting up an exercise ball program.

Some of the exercises that may be performed:

• Upper Body
  • Wall Push-up
  • Floor Push-up
  • Reverse Push-up
  • Triceps Dips
• Lower Body
  • Squat
  • Single-leg Squat
  • Lunge
  • Bridges
  • Reverse Bridge
  • Hamstring Curl
  • Inner Thigh Ball Pass

• Trunk/Torso
  • Ball Crunch
  • Roll Away
  • Side Crunch
  • Back Extension
  • Plank
  • Reverse Plank
  • Jackknife
  • Ball Rotation
  • Woodchop

For ease of tracking your workout, a chart of the exercises should be developed that shows the number of sets and the reps in each set.  It is a good idea to divide the workout into three parts; upper body, lower body and torso.  Alternate starting with different body parts to keep things interesting and to prevent you body from getting used to a routine.  A typical week might be:

• Monday – Upper Body, Lower Body, Torso
• Tuesday – Cardio-Vascular exercises.
• Wednesday – Lower Body, Torso, Upper Body
• Thursday – Cardio-Vascular exercises
• Friday – Torso, Upper Body, Lower Body
• Weekend – rest

For the hardcore bodybuilder, the exercise ball may be used to augment a weight and circuit training routine by interspersing ball exercises with the iron-pumping.  The ball routine could be used to warm-up and stretch the muscles before embarking on the weight training.  Parts of the exercise ball routine could be used to warm and exercise those muscles on the days they are being rested from weights.

The simple principle of air resistance has been applied by Schwinn to their Airdyne Exercise Bicycle.  The Airdyne is a stationary, upright exercise machine that will workout all parts of the body.  Unlike most exercise bikes that use a wheel riding on a variable resistance track, the Schwinn uses an air-paddle mounted in a cage, chain driven by peddling.  The resistance provided by the seated exerciser increases with the speed of the peddling.  A pair of handles that move alternately with the speed of the peddling operation provide upper body and core torso exercise simultaneously with leg workout provided by the peddling.  The wind resistance provided by the air paddle is infinite.

Schwinn Exercise Equipment is a unit of Nautilus, the creator and manufacturer of variable resistance exercise equipment using an eccentric cam shaped like the shell of an aquatic bivalve, the nautilus.  Other divisions include Bowflex, StairMaster and Nautilus Institute.  This company has a great history of innovation and quality products.  The Schwinn Airdyne Exercise Bike is no exception.

The Airdyne comes equipped with two computer exercise programs and a heart rate monitor.  The overall unit is very stable yet easily moved to storage.  The heavy duty frame and components weigh in at ninety-six pounds and will handle a weight of three hundred pounds.  The warranty provided for residential use is:

• Frame – 30 years
• Electronics – 3 years
• Labor – 1 year
• Wear Parts – 1 year

Many Schwinn Airdynes are in use in commercial fitness clubs.  The machine is the same, but because of the anticipated increase in usage, the warranty is fifteen years on the frame, one year on electronics and labor and six months on wear parts.  Maintenance requirements are minimal.  The basic Airdyne has a list price of $625.

The exercise professionals who founded and run the five facility fitness organization in South Jersey, Future Fitness, know that in order to attract and retain membership, a fitness center must be customer oriented.  No one knows this better than Craig Ehleider, President of Future Fitness.  Craig has been a fixture in the fitness industry for many years and is known for his application of scientific principles to exercise physiology.  In addition the corporate philosophy is to provide more and better services than any of the competitors, all for the same costs.

With five locations in the South Jersey, Philadelphia area, Future Fitness is well equipped to provide physical fitness training to meet every need, from the hardcore exercise enthusiast to the businessman or busy homemaker who wants to improve their health and get into good physical condition.  Future Fitness professionals offer personal training, but go a step further by offering all members one personal training hour per month as part of their membership.  This helps clients with their personal routine and gives them an unbiased evaluation of their progress.  Also as part of their services, Future Fitness offers nutritional advice and a monthly health and progress evaluation by a medical professional.

Future Fitness Centers are located in Cherry Hill, Mt. Laurel, Turnersville, Berlin and Mullica Hill.  They are well equipped with the latest in fitness machines and free weights and each center is staffed by professional trainers, certified massage therapists and nurses.  They also feature childcare centers so those busy homemakers can get in a training session.  Their website, www.futurefitnesscenters.com is easy to navigated and loaded with information about the company, their personnel and their locations.  There are also a number of informative videos featuring Craig and his staff.

Fitness experts are always looking for some new innovation that is effective and easy to perform.  Some of their innovations have been wild and not very scientifically based.  The latest device, however, is very effective and well tested for results – Exercise Balls or Swiss Exercise Balls.  These well inflated, elastic balls come in a variety of sizes, the most common being 55 centimeter (approximately 22 inches), 65 centimeters (26 inches) and 75 centimeters (30 inches).  The ball is used to assist in exercises for total body fitness.  For those on a program of free weights or circuit machine exercises, the exercise ball is used to warm up or augment their routine, most commonly for abdominals or midsection exercises.

Some of the exercises used to work the abs with an exercise ball:

• Ball Crunch – Sit on top of the ball with legs bent at a forty-five degree angle.  Bend forward in a crunch, pushing back slightly with legs, return to starting position.  Repeat.
• Roll Away – On toes, legs extended with elbows resting on ball, roll the ball away while bending your body at the waist, placing tension on abs.  Return to start, repeat.
• Side Crunch – While on knees, lean against the ball at your right side while straightening your left leg.  Bend to the left at the waist, contracting abs.  Return and repeat.  Switch sides and do another set.
• Back Extension – With your body straight, lie across the ball.  With arms behind head, raise your head and shoulders while contracting lower back muscles.  Return and repeat.
• Jackknife – With your body straight, hands on floor and knees on the ball, pull your knees to your chest until your instep is on the ball.  Return to starting position and repeat.
• Ball Rotation – In supine position (on your back) arms extended to the side, grasp ball between ankles, raise legs overhead and move the ball in a rotating motion, clockwise, then counter-clockwise for as many reps as you can.  Rest briefly and repeat.
• Woodchop – Stand erect with the ball in your hands, feet at shoulder width.  Twist to the right and make a chopping motion with the ball.  Return to starting position, the twist to the left and make a chopping motion with the ball.  Repeat until tired.
• Plank – On your knees with your elbows on the ball, raise your buttocks in the air so your weight is on your toes and elbows, while contracting your midsection.  Hold as long as possible.  Short rest and repeat.
• Reverse Plank – On hands with instep and shins resting on the ball, push the ball back with your feet until your body is straight, while contracting abs.  Hold as long as possible.  Rest and repeat.

Rowing exercise machines were patented as early as 1871 and were developed to maintain the fitness of competitive athletic rowers.  Exercisers other than rowers began to use the machines because they were found to be a very good source of overall fitness.  Rowing works all four limbs and the torso of the body and it is aerobic, working the cardio-vascular system very effectively.  Rowing exercise is also very low impact and does not negatively affect any joint in the body.  Doctors have recommended rowing as a means of strengthening the lower back.

Rowing machines come in a variety of forms, but they are basically a device with a seat mounted on a track, with a footpad and pivoting oars.  Resistance is provided by several means; weights and pulleys, pneumatic cylinders, hydraulics or spring tension.  The exercises on the rowing machine are intended to simulate actual rowing in a racing scull.  The seat slides on the track so the legs are involved, providing additional thrust to the rowing motion on the oars.  A rhythm is easily established that controls the amount of work being done by the exercise; the faster the rowing, the more work is accomplished.

The advantages of rowing exercise:

• The machines are good for home use as well as in the fitness club
• The exercise is a very good fat-burner, a high-caloric burner
• Good fitness is promoted
• Good exercise for neophyte fitness seekers
• Can be done indoors in any weather
• Exerciser can watch TV or listen to music during the exercises
• There is no knee or ankle pressure
• Develops some leg strength as well as upper body and core
• Some machines have fans to help cool the skin during the workout

Some negatives about rowing machine exercise:

• The repetitious exercise may become boring
• Aerobic exercise does little to boost the metabolism
• The better machines are not cheap
• There is a lot of noise associated with rowing machines

Most of the negatives can be worked through, particularly if a TV or music system is used for entertainment while rowing.  The calorie burning is very effective and rowing will produce the same work in 20-25 minutes as 35-45 minutes on other aerobic equipment.  For the budget conscious, used rowing equipment is readily available from a variety of sources; E-Bay, Craig’s List and the local classified ads.

In the late 1970s, a group of extreme athletes participated in the ultimate test of fitness and endurance, The IRONMAN Triathlon Competition. From inauspicious beginnings, The IRONMAN is recognized worldwide today as the most extreme form of endurance competition.  The event is held annually on the island of Hawaii and consists of three phases run sequentially:  A 2.4 mile swim in open water; a 112 mile bike race; and a run of 26.2 miles (the marathon distance).  There are a number of classes of competition by sex, age groups, professional and amateur.  Just finishing The IRONMAN gives significant bragging rights and hero-points enough to last a lifetime.

The promoters and developers of IRONMAN produce IRONMAN Fitness Equipment for the North and South American markets and they have licensed the manufacture outside of the Western Hemisphere.  The three primary products are; treadmills, exercise bikes and elliptical exercise machines.

• Treadmills – Two models, 1911 and 1921, with respectively; 2.5 and 3 HP continuous electric motors, 10 and 12 mph top speeds.  Each has 13 exercise programs and handlebar controls for ease of operation.
• Exercise bikes – Eight models, 3 upright and 5 recumbent, all with a wide variety of resistance and features.
• Elliptical Exercise Machines – Five models, 1 with eight levels of resistance, 4 with sixteen levels.  The base model has 1 heart-rate control and 1 program, the other four have 4 HR controls and up to 12 custom programs

Though IRONMAN Fitness Equipment was developed for home use, they are of commercial quality with sturdy frames, decks, motors, controls and features.  Independent reviewers rate all IRONMAN equipment very highly.  Further information is available on their webpage or through any of a number of equipment distributors found online.

“Exercise is boring.” Is one of the most common complaints about exercising for weight loss, most of which involves a high-repetition-low-impact cardio-vascular program.  Sure there are TVs in the fitness club, or you can plug into your iPod and listen to your favorite music, but exercise can be boring.  Then along came dance exercise, providing all the fun of dancing and the fitness benefits of cardio.  Most of the dance-for-exercise programs are available on DVDs so you can train at home, but many fitness clubs are offering dance exercise classes in their aerobics rooms.

Set to lively popular music; rock to hip-hop, even belly-dancing, the dance exercise routines are, as described in one promotion for a DVD, “fifty minutes of fun . . . and sweating!” Though you may do the dance exercise at home, there is something about the atmosphere of a crowded aerobics room with a bunch of jumping (dancing?), sweaty bodies all aglow from a mutually shared experience.  Also, it is a lot easier to keep up the program if you have a bunch of workout partners.  These programs aren’t just for the ladies either.  Many men are enjoying the vigorous dancing weight loss programs as well.

Some of the internet sites promoting these DVDs also have sample videos available at a click of the mouse:  www.DanceXFitness.com, www.jazzercise.com, www.beachbody.com, www.collagevideo.com/exercise-videos/dance-exercise-videos.com and many others.  Just do a Google and look for what you want.  Also, query the local health and fitness clubs, including the YMCA and you’ll probably find a number of options available to you.

Much like the arm biceps, the hamstring benefits from a “curling” movement with moderate resistance, using pulleys or dumbbells.  Additionally, there are specific machines in many fitness centers that are designed for “thigh curls.”  Other hamstring curls may be executed using Swiss balls, benches or simply a supine position on a floor exercise mat.

• Swiss Ball Hamstring Exercise – lie prone with feet on the ball, elevate hips and bend legs at knee, rolling the ball towards your buttocks, hold for one second, the straighten legs while keeping butt elevated.  Repeat for ten or more reps.
• Hamstring Curls with Ankle Weights – strap on weights, stand erect, moving leg only from the knee down, raise foot until lower leg is at ninety degrees or more.  Lower and repeat for ten or more reps.
• Good Mornings – stand erect with a light barbell held at arms length.  Bend forward, keeping legs straight, and place the barbell against the floor.  Straighten and repeat for ten reps or more.
• Donkey Kicks – on hands and knees, straighten and raise one leg, then raise the leg as high as possible while clenching the buttocks.  Lower leg, but don’t touch the ground with foot or leg.  Repeat for ten or more reps.
• Hip Raises – supine on floor exercise mat, raise knees to 45 degree angle.  Thrust hips up as far as you can.  Lower butt and repeat then or more times.
• Bench Hip Raises – same as above, but begin with feet elevated on a bench.
• Hamstring Stretch – seated with legs together in front.  Bend forward and touch forehead to knees (or a close as you can get).  Straighten up, then repeat ten or more times.

Like any other muscle, the hamstrings should be warmed up before stretching them in order to avoid injury.  Cold muscles are injury prone if not warmed before strenuous stretching, so some light, high repetition exercise should be performed before beginning a hamstring routine.