By Sylvia Anderson

You’re eating a balanced diet. You’re exercising daily. You’re staying away from junk food. But the numbers on your scale still refuse to budge. So why aren’t you losing weight when you’re doing all the “right” things? Keep reading to find out why you’re not shedding those pesky pounds . . . and what you can do to change that!

1. You’re Not Exercising Portion Control

One major reason why people don’t lose weight is because they serve themselves excessive portion sizes. For example, the recommended USDA portion size for meat is four ounces, or about the size of a deck of cards. Compare this size to the average size of a filet at a steakhouse, which is at least twice that size, and you can see why America is suffering from an obesity epidemic. Beware of hefty portions both when eating out and when eating at home.

2. You Skip the Most Important Meal of the Day: Breakfast

If you’re not losing weight, you should ask yourself if you are eating a nutritional breakfast. Breakfast is still regarded as the most important meal because it sets the tone for how you distribute your calories for the rest of the day. For instance, eating a breakfast of whole-wheat toast, eggs, and fruit will leave you feeling satisfied for a longer stretch of time. You will be less prone to snack and binge on unhealthy foods the rest of the day.

3. You Eat Only One Meal

Many dieters also make the mistake of fasting during the day and eating one large meal at dinnertime. While you may think you’d eat fewer calories by taking this approach, by the time evening arrives you are so hungry that you end up overeating. In fact you likely end up eating more fat and calories than you normally would if you had eaten three healthy meals and two nutritious snacks that day. Additionally, these large meals are often extremely heavy and caloric, and a bad choice so close to your bedtime.

4. You Don’t Pay Attention to What You’re Eating

People also fail to lose weight due to “calorie creep.” A common example of this is when people eat while they cook. Even taking small bites of foods can deposit hundreds of calories into your body. This amount is staggering when you consider that the average person’s recommended calorie intake is 2,000 calories per day. To combat “calorie creep,” you should pay attention to each morsel of food you put into your mouth. Do not distractedly eat small bites of food and expect that it won’t count as calories. Try keeping a food diary and making sure that you record every single piece of food or sip of drink you take. You might be surprised at the excessive amount of calories you take in.

5. You Are Eating the Wrong Foods

Another dietary reason why you’re not losing weight may have to do with your distorted ideas of a food’s nutritional value. Many people believe yogurt is good for you because it is a source of protein and calcium. While this is true, if you are eating full-fat yogurt instead of low-fat yogurt with healthy probiotics, you are doing yourself more harm than good.

You may also be getting extra fat through your cooking oil. If you’re using more than one tablespoon of oil or butter for cooking, you are adding many harmful saturated fats to your diet. Moreover, while olive oil is a healthy cooking-oil option, take care not to add more than a tablespoon because this oil is still heavy in fats.

6. You Are Drinking Your Calories

Some dieters pay meticulous attention to what they are eating, but forget that calories come in liquid form as well! Whether its juice or wine or a sports drink, those calories also count towards your daily amount. Think diet soda is the answer? Think again. Recent research suggests that even diet soda may spur you to crave sugary, calorie-laden foods. The best option, of course, is water. If you can’t stomach plain water, try adding a lemon or lime slice to make it more tolerable.

7. You Are Not Exercising Effectively

Lastly, you should examine your exercise routine. Are you using proper form when you do sit-ups and lunges? That is, are you honestly using only the muscles you’re supposed to be targeting? When doing exercise, proper form will get you the results you want and greatly further your weight loss. Also, you need to make sure that you’re getting your heart rate up when doing cardiovascular exercise. If you walk every day, but only do so at a snail’s pace, you’re not doing much to aid your weight-loss efforts.

Don’t despair! By taking a closer look at your approach to losing weight, you may just uncover some vital mistakes such as those above. Fix those mistakes immediately, and you’ll see results in no time.

Get Strong! Stay Strong!

Chris

By Nick Nilsson – Staley Training Systems

If you’ve ever had a hard time developing your shoulders, this exercise is going to be a lifesaver for you! Personally, shoulders are one of my WORST bodyparts. It’s tough to keep them strong…tough to get them bigger…and tough to really feel them working when I’m actually doing shoulder exercises!

But the first time I used this technique, it absolutely blew my mind. As soon as I finished the set, my shoulders felt like they were inflating! The blood was came rushing in and I knew I was on to something special…that RARELY happens to me with ANY shoulder exercises.

So what makes THIS exercise so special? You’re going to reach muscular failure TWICE within the same set. AND you’re going to do it with NO REST in between the two phases of the exercise. BAM BAM…one part right into the next.

But here’s the twist…it’s not a typical drop set in which you reduce the weight to achieve this! You’re going to use the SAME weight for both phases of the exercise.

The REAL key lies in the range of motion of each part of the exercise…

You see, when you do a normal barbell shoulder press, as you push the barbell up, you go through what is called a strength curve. In basic terms, it means at the bottom of the movement you are fairly strong. But as you press further (normally about 3 to 5 inches up in the movement) you hit a point where the leverage in your shoulders changes. The exercise gets a lot tougher.

This is called a sticking point – it’s basically the weakest point in the exercise. Another example of a sticking point is commonly seen in the bench press. If you were doing a bench press using a heavy weight, lowered the weight to your chest then started to press but couldn’t get past a certain point (a few inches above your chest), THAT is also a sticking point.

Bottom line, you can only lift as much weight as you can move through that WEAKEST point in the range of motion of an exercise. But OUTSIDE that sticking point, your muscles are stronger and can lift more weight!

The question becomes, how do we still do full range-of-motion lifting while putting greater tension on the muscles to maximize their strength in OTHER phases of the movement?

We’re going to break the movement into two distinct phases. On the first phase, you’re going to do FULL reps of the shoulder press. When you can’t do any more full reps, you’re going to do partial reps in ONLY the top, stronger half of the range of motion.

It’s a powerful technique and it’ll get your shoulders burning like crazy!

The key to geting the most out of this exercise is the setup…

How to Do It:

First, you’ll be doing this exercise in the power rack. While there IS a way to do it without being the rack (and it is still effective that way), the rack is going to allow you to really push your shoulders to the maximum.

Set the safety rails in the rack to just below shoulder height. You’re going to be doing a standing military barbell press for your shoulders, bringing to the front, of course! I NEVER recommend doing any behind-the-head shoulder pressing – it can cause shoulder damage.

For this exercise, start with a weight you can get at least 8 to 10 reps for. I would suggest doing 3 or 4 sets of this exercise in total for your shoulder workout.

Grip the bar with your pinkies or fourth fingers on the smooth rings of the Olympic bar. You need to take a narrower grip on the bar than with the bench press. The rails should be set so you have to bend your knees a bit to get under the bar. The bar should be held across your extreme upper chest.  Next, begin the pressing movement. Press the barbell up in front of your face then lockout at the top. When you do a military press, your knees should be slightly bent and abs tight to keep stress off the lower back.

Because of the path of the bar, you will be leaning back a little bit – it has to go in front of your face. But as soon as the bar clears your head, shift your torso forward so that the bar is DIRECTLY over your head. It almost resembles a bobbing-forward motion. This is a key point that a lot of people miss with the shoulder press. If you keep leaning back, it keep tension on the front delts and takes it off the rear delts.Lower the weight slowly back to your chest then press again. Keep going until you can’t get the weight past the sticking point. Try and get it past the sticking point, though! We want to be sure you’re right at the limit.

When you’re done, set the bar back on the safety rails. And here’s the trick that’s going to set your shoulders on fire…keeping your hands locked onto the bar, drop down onto your knees under the bar. Now keep pressing in the partial top range of motion of the press!

Because the bar is now ABOVE the sticking point, your shoulders have better leverage and can continue with the exercise! Do as many reps as you can until you can’t even budge the bar. I prefer to set the weight down on the rails in between reps here but you can keep a continuous movement, if you want. Do it whichever way feels best to you.

By exploiting the top range of motion after fatiguing the muscles in the full range of motion, you’re going to finally be working the shoulders with FULL resistance in the whole range of motion.

When you’re done, stand up. Your shoulders will be swelling up any second now!

As I mentioned previously, there IS a way to perform this technique without a power rack.

First, perform the barbell shoulder press, just like above. Now, instead of doing reps until you can’t get past the sticking point, you’re going to have to stop a rep or two SHORT of that point of failure.

Basically, you’re going to have to complete that last rep to the TOP. When you’re at the top, now lower the bar only halfway down (just above where your sticking point normally is) then press it back up to the top.

Keep doing reps in this shortened range of motion until you can’t hold the bar up anymore!

Get Strong! Stay Strong!

Chris

In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, the state of Washington’s Health Department has temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.

Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, and the compound may  be linked to autism. But it will be added to the bulk of swine-flu vaccines.

Thimerosal will be added to the vaccine because it is being produced in vials that contain enough medication for 10 shots. The mercury compound kills bacteria, lowering the risk that the drug will be contaminated by needles used to withdraw separate doses.

A smaller amount of mercury-free vaccine will be produced in single-dose vials. Nasal sprays do not contain mercury but are not recommended for children under the age of 2 and pregnant women, because they contain live, weakened virus.

Five biopharmaceutical companies have been awarded massive contracts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for development and production of more than 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine.

The companies — Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, Australian drug maker CSL, and Sanofi-Pasteur — will likely make a great deal of money.

Drug companies have sold $1.5 billion worth of swine flu shots, in addition to the $1 billion for seasonal flu they booked earlier this year.

These inoculations are part of a much wider and rapidly growing $20 billion global vaccine market.

“The vaccine market is booming,” says Bruce Carlson, spokesperson at market research firm Kalorama, which publishes an annual survey of the vaccine industry. “It’s an enormous growth area for pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not doing so well,” he says, noting that the pipeline for more traditional blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor and Nexium has thinned.

As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1’s progress and educate the public about prevention.

Drugmakers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales, with Sanofi-Pasteur, Glaxo Smith Kline and Novartis cornering most of the market.

But some say it’s not just drugmakers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copayments for special office visits to inject shots, and there have been assertions that these doctors actually profit handsomely from these vaccinations.

Get Strong! Stay Strong! (and think twice about the vaccination!)

Chris

By Charles Staley There’s a very eloquent formula for determining success in any sporting endeavor: Productivity = Potential — Losses Due to Faulty Process As an athlete, there’s nothing you can do about your genetic inheritance, but there’s always room for improvement when it comes to your training methods. Particularly, it’s important to identify and correct the most significant error you’re making, because resolving this error has the most potential to improve your athletic performance.

Golfers are a strength coach’s dream, because few of them utilize resistance training. In such cases, a carefully supervised 8-10 week strength training program frequently results in well over a 100 percent strength increase. This increase creates a strength “reserve,” which quickly improves both power, accuracy, and endurance.

During a golf swing, it takes a certain amount of muscular strength to overcome the external resistance of the golf club (this strength is provided primarily by the legs, hips, and rotator muscles of the torso). The stronger you are, the more strength that is left in reserve, and the more you’ll be able to accelerate the club, swing after swing, without exhausting yourself over 18 holes.

For novice golfers, skill practice sessions are sufficient for developing sportspecific strength. But as technical ability improves, the need for supplementary strength training increases accordingly. One interesting phenomenon in golf is that younger players ignore the conditioning element of their preparation, but it often takes years, even decades to develop technical proficiency. So, a golfer may be well over 40 years old by the time he or she has developed a high level of technical expertise, but by this time, physical conditioning has become an issue.

Resistance Training Technology on a Scale of “Good, Better, Best”

While health clubs and equipment manufacturers will tell you otherwise, resistance training machines are not the “best” form of strength training technology, especially for golfers. While they definitely have their place, machines tend to restrict movement to a single plane, which means that the strength developed will not transfer well to an activity like golf, which is multiplanar. Machines also use “variable resistance” technology, so that the machine supposedly matches the muscle’s force curve. But most credible research casts doubts on the effectiveness of this concept. Finally, machines normally restrict the movement to a single joint for the purpose of “isolating” the muscle being worked, but golf is not an activity which requires isolated movements! The object of strength training for golf is to train movement, not muscles.

While “constant resistance” devices such as barbells and dumbbells are superior to machines, they nonetheless have their disadvantages as well. Let’s use the bench press as an example: you lower the bar to your chest, and then ram it to arms length. You assume you’re moving explosively, but as your arms reach extension, the antagonists (latissimus, biceps, rhomboids, and medial trapezious) begin to contract in an effort to decelerate the bar before it leaves your hands. It’s simply a protective mechanism.

Contrast this with your objective, which is to accelerate the bar, and you begin to see the problem. There are ways to address this inherent disadvantage of constant and variable resistance training, however.

Strengthening the Stabilizers

Stabilizers are muscles which anchor or immobilize one part of the body, allowing another part (usually the limbs) to exert force. The most significant stabilizers are those of the trunk— the abdominals and trunk extensors. If the motor cortex detects that it can’t stabilize the force provided by the prime movers, it simply won’t allow the prime movers to contract with full force. Stabilizers are best strengthened through exercises conducted in an unstable environment, such as on a “physio-ball” (those heavy-duty “beach balls” you might have noticed in your local health club), or movements performed with medicine balls.

If you’ve never seriously considered adopting a serious strength training program to improve your golf game, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. Don’t let stereotypical notions of strength training prevent you from taking advantage of this important conditioning element!

SIDEBAR: Strength Training Suggestions for Golfers

1) Seek professional guidance from a sports conditioning professional. Certified personal trainers who have significant experience working with athletes may also be a good option.

2) Initially, expect a slight decline in your game as your body begins to adapt to the additional training loads. After a handful of weeks, your game should climb back up to, and surpass previous levels. For this reason, don’t start a strength training program for the first time if you have important tournaments pending.

3) Expect to spend between 1 and 3 hours a week on your strength training program. The emphasis should be on leg and abdominal musculature.

Get Strong! Stay Strong!

Chris

By Jeff Anderson “the Muscle Nerd”

Much research has been done into the seemingly impossible task of “spot reduction” of body fat.

You know…like how to burn fat directly off of your belly WITHOUT taking away from the butt you’re so proud of.

While experts have claimed that there’s no way to “spot reduce” where you’re able to take of the fat, recent studies are showing that it may in fact be possible.

For example, scientists have studied exactly WHERE fat is burned from in order to fuel certain activities.

It seems that there may be a unique connection where the fat cells in the location of the muscles being exercised may actually provide the bulk of the long term fuel for your training.

This is NOT definitive yet, but it holds promise.

It also supports my theory (and again, this is ONLY my theory!) that your MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION plays a STRONG role in how much, and WHERE you can burn fat.

In this article, I reveal a unique tip that I use to increase the “mind-muscle” connection to (again, in theory) burn more belly fat from your training by implementing a crazy “cardio fat blaster”…

How To Burn More Belly Fat During Exercise

1. First, if you have my best-selling “Combat The Fat” program (www.CombatTheFat.com), you know that I’m a HUGE supporter of LOW intensity cardio as a fat-burner.

Sure, you can get your panties all in a wad while you preach to me about how HIGH intensity is better, but I lay out the FACTS in my book and the men and women who have used CTF know the real deal.

Anyhoo, I digress…

2. For this exercise session, you’ll do a quick, low effort warmup of about 5 minutes on a treadmill, bike, or other exercise equipment.

3. Next, do a set of WEIGHTED CRUNCHES until failure.  Just one single set.

4. Now, go and do a 10 minute LOW INTENSITY cardio activity that uses primarily either an upper body or lower body movement (e.g. – Rowing machine/jumping rope primarily works upper body while jogging, bike, works lower)

5. When 10 minutes are up, do one set of HANGING LEG RAISES (with your legs straight) to failure and then go on to your 2nd 10-minute bout of low intensity cardio using the opposite area of your body as your last set.

(i.e. – if you jumped rope in your last cardio round, switch to an exercise like jogging on the treadmill this time.)

6. When done, do a single set to failure of HANGING ROTATIONAL KNEE RAISES…then on to your 3rd round of cardio using the opposite half of your body.

And so it goes on, switching back and forth between an abs exercise and low intensity cardio.

For your follow up abs exercises, I suggest (in order)…

=> Hanging Knee Raises

=> Either crunches or V-ups

As you can see, we slowly decrease the intensity of the abs exercise choices with each set as you get closer to the end of your workout.

But in essence, by training your abs throughout your cardio session, you send a “message” to your body WHERE you want all that fat-burning cardio to do most of it’s work.

You may think I’m crazy, but give it a try and see if it doesn’t make a difference in where your measurements start reflecting results!

Even though I’m a fan of high intensity, its always good to have some variety.  Jeff always has good info.

Get Strong! Stay Strong!

Chris

From Dr Mercola’s Website:

Last but not least, let me reiterate the many ways you can protect your health from ANY kind of flu, without a potentially dangerous vaccine.

I have not caught a flu in over two decades, and you can avoid it too by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I’ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself.

I would STRONGLY urge you to have your vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are therapeutic at 50-70 ng.ml and done by a reliable vitamin D lab like Lab Corp.

If you are coming down with flu like symptoms and have not been on vitamin D you can take doses of 50,000 units a day for three days to treat the acute infection. Some researchers like Dr. Cannell, believe the dose could even be as high as 1,000 units per pound of body weight for three days.

However, most of Dr. Cannell’s work was with seasonal and not pandemic flu. If your body has never been exposed to the antigens there is chance that the vitamin D might not work. Your best bet is to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D around 60 ng/ml.

• Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Remember that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.

• Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you’re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.

• Have Effective Tools to Address Stress. We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.

If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using a tool such as meridian tapping techniques, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page manual for some guidelines on how to perform this simple technique.

• Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started.

• Take a good source of animal-based omega-3 fats like krill oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils like trans fats as it will seriously damage your immune response.

• Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or to other people. Be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.

• Use All-Natural ‘Antibiotics’. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in your body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don’t enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.

  Other all-natural antibiotics include olive leaf extract, oil of oregano, and high quality colloidal silver.

• Avoid Hospitals and Vaccines In this particular case, I’d also recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you have an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of thelikeliest places you could be exposed to this new bug.

  Get Strong! Stay Strong! ( and healthy!!!!)

  Chris

What is in the Regular Flu Shot?

• Egg proteins, including avian contaminant viruses

• Gelatin, known to cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin

• Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™), which can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis

• Formaldehyde: a known carcinogen

• Triton X100: a strong detergent

• Sucrose (table sugar)

• Resin, known to cause allergic reactions

• Gentamycin, an antibiotic

• Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose vials

From Dr Mercola’s website

Looks more like toxic soup!

Get Strong! Stay Strong!

Chris

By Catherine Lewis, AHJ Editor — Published: September 17, 2009

If you want to live a longer, healthier life, you can start to do so immediately by eliminating certain foods from your diet. It’s really that easy! Foods that are high in hydrogenated oil, sugar and chemicals can significantly shorten your lifespan. They can lead to diseases such as heart disease, digestive disease and diabetes, just to name a few. You can extend your life simply by avoiding the following foods.

These are the three things that noted doctors and scientists have warned can shorten your lifespan.

1. Fast Food and Fried Foods

Fast foods are filled with preservatives, chemicals and hydrogenated fats. Even so-called “healthy” fast foods are a danger to your health because they contain preservatives, which aren’t found in “real” foods. In order for fast food restaurants to be profitable, they rely on purchases made in bulk quantity . . . this is where all those preservatives come in. Even if the foods are not fried in hydrogenated oils, they are still a health risk. Most of the so-called healthy foods that restaurants offer, such as deli sandwiches, contain processed meats and cheeses as well as chemicals to preserve them so that they stay fresh longer.  

Additionally, eating foods that are fried in hydrogenated oils will shorten your lifespan and are a leading cause of heart disease. These foods clog your arteries and raise bad cholesterol. Deep fried foods may taste good, sure, but are definitely not good for your health. In addition to heart disease, they are also linked with obesity and digestive problems. Take immediate steps to eliminate fried foods from your diet.

2. Sugars

Foods like cookies, cakes, candy and soft drinks are high in sugar and provide absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. The only thing these foods are good for are to help you gain weight, and quite a bit of it too. They are hard on your digestive tract because it has to work extra-hard at breaking them down. They lead not only to obesity but also to diabetes, which will shorten your lifespan considerably.

3. Packaged Foods

Stay away from packaged foods, including canned foods, meal packages and frozen foods. All are high in chemicals, which is how they are able to have a long shelf life. Frozen foods, especially the diet foods, are high in sodium. Take a look at the ingredients on the boxes or cans and you will see a list of chemicals included in the foods. Do you really want to put these into your body? 

Start eating real foods and stay away from anything pre-packaged. This includes anything with preservatives. The chemicals that are put into some foods have been known to promote disease. Packaged foods are also usually high in calories and do not have the nutritional value of real foods.  

You can start living a longer and healthier life right away by eliminating these foods from your diet. They offer very little by way of nutrition and have an adverse effect on your health. Start eating plenty of fish, fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole grains for fiber and you will start to improve your health immediately. You will boost the health of your heart, digestive system, weight and even your brain power by eliminating hydrogenated oils, sugars and chemicals from your diet.

Get Strong!  Stay Strong! (and live long!)

Chris