Weight Loss Exercise

A lot of us live our lives like penned animals. Built to move, too often we put ourselves in a cage. We have bodies designed for racing across the savannas, but we live a lifestyle designed for migrating from the bed to the breakfast table; to the car seat; to the office chair; to the restaurant booth; to the living room couch and back to the bed.

It was not always this way. Not long ago in the United States, a man who worked on a farm did the equivalent of 15 miles of jogging every day; and his wife did the equivalent of 7 miles of jogging.

Today, our daily obligations of work and home keep us tied to our chairs, and if we want exercise, we have to seek it out.

In fact, health experts insist that obesity problem is probably caused at least as much by lack of physical activity as by eating too much. Hence, it is important that people need to move around.

However, that does not mean that a lap or two around the old high school track will offset a daily dose of donuts. Exercise alone is not very efficient, experts say. They contend that if you just exercise and do not change your diet, you may be able to prevent weight gain or even lose a few pounds for a while.

Nevertheless, it is not something that you are likely to sustain unless exercise is part of an overall program. The more regularly you exercise, the easier it is to maintain your weight. Here is what to do every day to make sure that you get the exercise you need.

1. Get quality Zzzs.

Make sure that you get adequate sleep. Good sleep habits are conducive to exercise, experts point out. If you feel worn out during the day, you are less likely to get much physical activity during the day.

In addition, there is evidence that people who are tired tend to eat more, using food as a substance for the rest they need.

2. Walk the walk.

It is probably the easiest exercise program of all. In fact, it may be all you ever have to do, according to some professional advices of some health experts.

Gradually build up to at least 30 minutes of brisk walking five times a week. Brisk walks themselves have health and psychological benefits that are well worth the while.

3. Walk the treadmill.

When the weather is bad, you might not feel like going outdoors. But if you have a treadmill in the television room, you can catch up on your favorite shows while you are doing your daily good turn for your weight-maintenance plan.

Most of us watch television anyway, and indoor exercise equipment enables anyone to turn a sedentary activity into a healthy walk.

4. Seize the time.

Excuses aside, lack of time is certainly a limiting factor in most lifestyles. That is why health experts suggest a basic guideline for incorporating exercise into your schedule.

Get as much exercise as you can that feels good without letting it interfere with your work or family life. If you need to, remind yourself that you are preventing many health problems when you prevent weight gain; and keeping your health is a gift to your family as well as yourself.

The Quick Weight Loss Diet Programs Trend Disadvantage

If you wear a size 14 and you blow a bundle on designer size 8 dresses as motivation, you will probably end up feeling guilty, frustrated, and angry if you are not slinking around in it a month later.

In reality, you will do much better setting smaller, achievable targets for yourself. If you must try the new-clothes strategy, go down a size at a time, and do not buy anything you have to take out a second mortgage to pay for.

Because, if you continue to remorse on losing weight fast, you will end up incorporating fad diets or those that offer quick weight loss.

For most people who are not aware of this fact, there are no such things as quick weight loss diet programs and there is no nippy weight loss for people who want to be slimmer than what their body can provide.

The problem with most people is that they tend to opt for nippy fixes wherein fact these things are not effective at all.

What Does Not Work

Today, there are plenty of weight-loss strategies that are guaranteed to backfire. This is because these nippy fixes instilled on certain diet plans are, in reality, not efficient because it does not employ the right principle and the right attitude in losing weight.

These quick weight loss diet program plans are known as fad diets because that is exactly what they are, just a fad. In time, when fashion is over and popularity wanes down, people will realize that the diet they have depended on is not reliable at all.

To know more about these fad diets that are selling like hotcakes in the market today, here is a list of some telltale signs that would tell you not to try it even once.

Here they are:

1. Skipping meals

Does your diet plan require you to skip meals? If it does, then, it is a fad diet.

Abstain from food completely is not a healthy habit. It may even cause some serious complications or problems especially for people who are sick with diabetes.

Skipping meals will only cause a hypoglycemia, or the condition wherein your blood sugar is really low, and will probably only be effective in making you eat twice as much at the next meal.

2. Dieting without exercise, or vice versa

Exercise is crucial to the human body. It is important in the proper blood circulation and other activities of the human body system.

Therefore, diet plans that do not require you to exercise are nuisances. People are born to move.

But then again, exercise alone is not sufficient. Hence, it would be better if diet and exercise will go hand-in-hand.

3. Continuous dawdling

There is no better time to start losing weight. If you want to really lose those excess fats, you have to lose weight now.

Delaying tactics will not get you anywhere and will only make the problem worse. So, if your diet plan suggests a certain timeframe for you start losing weight, chances are, you are following the trend of fad diets.

Boiled down, it is best to rely more on the way you feel than the tale of the tape. This means that if the weighing scale tells you that you are losing weight even if it is slower than you would like, but you are feeling energetic and positive about your weight-loss efforts, then, you are just doing fine.

As mentioned and is worth mentioning all over again, quick weight loss diet programs are not the answer.

The Transverse Abdominis: A Drastically Different Muscle

As we begin to focus on achieving goals for the New Year, we often

start by looking down at our stomach region. It sticks out way to far
for most of us. We often ask ourselves "what happened" and what can we
do about it? Set goals in my usual answer to my clients. Remember the
old saying "focus on what you want, or you'll get what you don't want",
I could not be any more true in trying to reduce your waistline and look
good for a summer 2007.

To gain strength and support in our entire core or belly region we are
going to look at and discuss the transverse abdominis. Transverse
abdominis is the deepest, innermost layer of all abdominal muscles.
Importance of this muscles function has been well-documented, but
unfortunately has been greatly misunderstood by most of the fitness and
medical practitioners.

It has been shown that the transverse abdominis is the first muscle to
contract during any movement of the arm and legs. What this means prior
to extremity (arms and legs) movements, there must be a proceeding
contraction of the transverse abdominis to stabilize the spine and
pelvis during movement. When the spine and pelvis all are stable, the
nervous system send signals to the brain effectively telling it is safe
to recruit the extremity muscles.

This stable foundation is a prerequisite for force generation in our
bodies. Force generation simply put is movements put together in a
sequence to achieve a outcome. When the transverse abdominis is fully
functional, all joints in the body receive greater neurological energy,
thus allowing efficient and injury for a movement.

When the transverse abdominis is not working optimally, the brain
automatically lowers the neurological impulses to the muscle, as the
brain attempts to protect joints and prevent any damage. When the
joints are unstable, the pressure sensitive proprioreceptors in the
joints began to sense excessive stress during movement. The brain in
turn attempts to cease muscular contraction protecting the joints and
joint structures. Due to our evolutionary adaptations over thousands of
years in our bodies, the body will prioritize joint longevity over
movement ability. In other words it will attempt to shut you down,
before you get injured. Now this is the way our body is arranged and it
doesn't always work this way. If you are on painkillers for a bad back,
the neurological impulse to the brain will be subdued thus allowing for
movement that would not normally happen.

The result of a dysfunctional transverse abdominis is poor movement
quality and instability leading to early degeneration of bold bones and
joints. Any person wanting to function, look and feel better must
maintain function of this important muscle. In many cases, due to
surgeries (cutting the abdominal wall, C.-sections, hysterectomies,
hernias, and other operations) communication goes awry. Communication
must be reestablished through specific isolation exercise techniques.
These techniques are outlined in more detail in my e-book Firm and
Flatten Your Abs Book.

The most common cause of transverse abdominis dysfunction is?

What was your guess?

That's right disuse!

Through inactivity, poor body awareness, respiratory dysfunction and
neglect of physical and emotional health the end result most often it is
physiological dysfunction. Many quality movement patterns and skills
will be lost including effective function of the transverse abdominis.
Without a good functional transverse abdominis you increase chances of
injuries.

There are few tricks you can do to get your transverse abdominis
functioning properly. This exercise will help you gain communication
with this often over looked muscle. If you have my Firm and Flatten Your
Abs ebook it is on page 51.

So here you go-

Four-Point Transverse Abdominis Tuck

This is a great exercise for isolating the transverse abdominis, for
correcting "pooch bellies," and rate connecting with the nervous system.
It is particularly valuable for pre-surgery preparation and post-surgery
rehabilitation. The lack of neural drive to the core muscles is one
reason for the belly hanging out as you know.

Position: get down on all fours as though you were going to crawl.
Place your hands directly underneath your shoulders and your knees
directly beneath your hips.

Movement:
1. Inhale and let your transverse abdominis or your belly hang towards
the floor.

2. Exhale, drawing the belly button in toward your spine.

Avoid any spinal movement during exercise such as contract includes
hamstrings, or any upper body changes.

Do this exercise on a 10 second hold and 10 second rest cycle for three
minutes. Do this two to three times a day and you will see your belly
getting a little smaller.

I hope you take advantage of this exercise to begin your own quest for
a firm and flatter abdominal region

till next week

FIRM & FLATTEN YOUR ABS-CLICK HERE

If you enjoyed the information in this article, you will also enjoy the
David Grisaffi Walking Guide, which is a complete walking exercise plan
that comes FREE with the Firm And Flatten Your Abs program at
FIRM & FLATTEN YOUR ABS-CLICK HERE

David Grisaffi, C. H. E. K. II, CFT, PN
Corrective Exercise Kinesiologist II
Golf Biomechanic
Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach II
mailto:david@flattenyourabs.net
http://www.FlattenYourAbs.net