Bar Method Red Mond

Archive for March, 2010

The stats on coronary heart disease show it is unquestionably problem on the rise, and the medical profession points the blame squarely on increasing levels of LDL (that’s the bad kind) cholesterol. High cholesterol is the number one cause of coronary heart disease, and it’s vital that you’re aware of the factors which can contribute to high levels and keep yourself in good shape for yourself and for your family.

Genetics play a part in your body’s ability to deal with cholesterol. As with many illnesses, there is an hereditary element to high levels of cholesterol and susceptibility to heart disease, so if you believe you have a family history of heart conditions, you could do much worse than to get a check up with your physician, if only for your own peace of mind.

We’re constantly warned about the dangers of a bad diet and it’s no surprise when you consider the shocking levels of saturated fats and cholesterol found in most fast food and even hidden in some less obvious dishes. Always consult nutrition information, and consider drastically reducing your salt intake if you’re trying to get cholesterol levels under control.

Closely linked to diet is of course, weight gain. If you’ve piled on the pounds in recent years, you’re putting yourself in greater danger of coronary heart disease. You’ll hear it time and time again, but the benefits of a balanced diet combined with regular exercise to get your heart going are not to be underestimated.

Sex and age are also factors to be considered. Those over 50 are likely to be more vulnerable to coronary heart disease, and the disease is more common in men than it is in women. However, once women have passed the menopause, their vulnerability to heart problems does significantly increase. If you feel like you may be in a high risk group, consult your physician for advice.

Alcohol’s links with heart disease is still the subject of studies, but alcohol can certainly contribute to raised blood pressure, which will certainly not help with any heart conditions. Be sure to drink in moderation and beware of consuming fatty snacks after your favorite beverage.

Work can wind us up, and high stress environments have been proven to raise levels of LDL cholesterol. If you work in a competitive, fast paced work environment, it’s important to take time out and if you’re under intense pressure, it may be beneficial to talk to your employer, with medical back up if necessary. Remember, your health is your number one concern as illness can mean a loss of earnings, not to mention the high cost of any healthcare that could be prevented through healthier living.

There are a whole host of products now on the market which could help you lower you cholesterol. Shop around for trusted, approved products and consult a medical professional before making major lifestyle changes. Planning now could save you real trouble later.

Fitness center marketing takes a bit of thinking outside the box. So let’s work on filling the gaps. So many people are out there, working their tails off, lifting dumbbells that are too heavy for their bodies and then going home to work their tails off in the home atmosphere!

Fitness centers around the U.S. are used to fitting in this little square of what it’s supposed to be, what it’s supposed to do and what type of staff it’s supposed to have. Create an environment that people like to come to. There are people out there that would want to come to your facility. There are people that are tired of the high prices and low service. There are people that want quality service, trainers that care and a welcoming atmosphere.

Your responsibility is to sell the facility to everyone in your area. It sounds like a tough job and so many owners struggle with this. You want to show people that your facility is more than fitness equipment and a group of services. Focus on what you offer that others don’t. Does your facility offer child care? Is it child care from other members that have a sign up list and can switch out to get a free class?

Don’ panic about the details. The most important part that separates you from the rest is the marketing strategy you have. How much are you selling the club in the right way? You can shout it from the rooftops but without the proper marketing, the shouting goes nowhere. Stop being afraid. For some of us that were terrorized with dodge ball and horrible P.E. teachers, it seems difficult to walk through the doors a facility. It is worth it and a lot has changed since the dodge ball game.

How can you help this? Well, for starters, use certain verbiage in your brochures. By using words like: welcoming, no pressure, accepting, you are enforcing the be-attitude that we all need. The more comfortable that you feel, the more willing you are to go to another day at the gym. Take advantage of the ideas out there for creating your fitness center marketing plan.

The fitness equipment industry is growing today. And because of this manufacturing companies cannot meet the increasing fitness consumer demands. To help deal with this situation, used fitness equipment has become a realistic option for many home fitness enthusiasts.

Today, many health clubs are keeping their fitness equipment between four to six years before they replace them with new ones. But imagine this scenario, manufactures purposely reducing the buying period of new exercise machines by two to three years, which would theoretically cause the amount of new equipment in the marketplace to double. This is how some manufacturers hope to maximize their profits as well as create new funds to make the industry grow even larger.

Old and used fitness equipment that has been used for two to three years is now bought by large fitness companies with $500 trade-in type programs. What they do is simply dump or actually bury this used gym equipment so they won’t impact the sales of new fitness machines sales. The biggest workout equipment manufacturers are beginning to see all the advantages of various trade-in programs and using short term lease programs to produce more new exercise equipment sales.

The real problem with this approach is that health clubs or fitness gyms will never sell most of their two to three year old workout machines for just five hundred dollars. That’s because all this commercial fitness equipment is built sturdy enough to have almost an eight to ten years lifespan. So, they simply won’t trade-in their three-year old used machines unless the offered price is high enough.

In turn, this means that a manufacturer will probably not have the courage to throw out this used gym equipment. Therefore, these manufacturers will need to find buyers for their trade-in equipment and who are willing to purchase the product 50% higher than its acquired purchase value (so the retailer can make some money too).

However, the used workout equipment market demand needs to become a real trend before manufacturers can expect to sell their short-term leasing programs. For this tread to become real, first the used exercise equipment industry must be robustly and credibly established. The idea is that when new fitness equipment prices double, then the two and three year old equipment will start to dominate the fitness market, which will then most likely increase the used exercise equipment market demands.

The truth is that these manufacturers can no longer turn their heads to used fitness equipment sales or stop companies selling these products or hinder others who purchase replacement parts for refurbishing older workout machines. However, replacement parts are difficult to find and when you do, they are extremely expensive.

So if large manufacturers do not allow smaller companies to refurbish used exercise equipment, then there will be no credible market for selling this used fitness equipment. The demand will shrink and then trade-in programs and new equipment rentals will not work either.

And companies who are selling used gym equipment will have to make their advertising better so it attracts enough customers to purchase their products. The criteria that most people use to find new fitness machines are the very same as with refurbishing fitness companies. They are selling their refurbished fitness equipment with the same quality and usefulness just like with new machines.

Whatever underlying reasons there may be on why used fitness equipment is popular today, make sure that you weigh all the advantages and disadvantages before purchasing them. And always remember, it is not about the money, but instead is needs to be about the safety and quality of your workout exercise that used fitness equipments can genuinely provide.

Have you ever heard a story like this? A relative goes to the hospital for tests to find out why they are tired all the time and doesn’t feel ‘well’. They did the tests, can not find anything wrong and don’t know what the problem is. They want them to go back in a few months time so they can run some more tests.

What they are doing is waiting for the condition (whatever it is) to develop further so it can be identified as treatment to manage a condition can only be aptly prescribed after a diagnosis is made.

There is an apt description coined for those whose heath has deteriorated to the point where the person has early symptoms but they have not yet progressed to the point that a specific disease process can be identified. They are called the ‘walking wounded’.

These are a growing army of these ‘walking wounded’, people who are ‘vertically ill’ who are not well enough to function adequately but are not yet quite sick enough to become ‘horizontally ill’ – bed bound with a total loss of physical function.

This ‘walking wounded’ scenario can go on for years or even decades as pain, disability and ill health push any hope of real health out the door. The victim can often adapt and keep going, but underneath the quality of life is slowly destroyed.

It is strange that we have been conditioned to believe that it is simply a question of “Lady Luck” as to our fate in life’ Lucky us, perfect health, no disease, long life. Or bad luck, poor health, disease, short life. It is as if we have no part in it, no influence and no responsibility as we run off to the doctor expecting them to fix us up if we get sick.

Although the doctor helps manage disease symptoms don’t think the doctor looks after your health. The doctor looks after your sickness. Don’t ever confuse that. You alone live in your body and you alone are responsible for your health. Even if you currently have disease symptoms starting to show you can improve your health dramatically.

You can even give yourself the gift of ‘real’ health. This is a much higher level than simply ‘not being sick’ and is where you have peak performance physically, mentally and emotionally. You have lots of energy, emotional balance and a quick mind. Your disease proof body has the ability to easily fight off invaders.

You don’t get colds and you certainly don’t suffer from preventable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes and at least fifty others that rob the health of millions of people.

But you have to work for ‘real’ health; it doesn’t just happen on its own. For starters you have to eat high quality food and this means ditching the processed, refined rubbish that sits in pretty boxes on the supermarket shelves made with dirt cheap ingredients devoid of nutrition. This means you have to cook from scratch, natural whole foods so your body is given the essential nutrients it needs to keep your immune system strong.

You also have to perform a proper exercise program that contains strength training exercise 2-3 times each week to keep your muscular system strong. Muscle is the engine of your body and if it is not in good condition all of your body systems weaken including the immune system which will allow life threatening disease to stalk you..

Having ‘real’ health allows you to have a much greater chance of enjoying a long and healthy life span achieving your full potential in every way. Ill health means a shorter life span with much of that time spent suffering and just merely existing. The choice is up to you – which will you choose?

I used to own one of those big pulley system weight machines. It cost me a couple of thousand dollars and was really good quality. I sold it on Ebay for $150 last year.

Now I use low cost equipment and get heaps better results. I can go outside and train, or I can train in front of the television. I can train in the living room and watch the kids at the same time. Or I can pack it all up and take it to the park and train with friends and clients in a different setting. No longer am I stuck in the study. And as I said, the results have been amazing. So what do I use?

First off I would recommend a good set of adjustable dumbbells. You know the ones where you can add or remove weight plates as required. I actually have a couple of sets. One I keep quite heavy for use with leg exercises and one set that I change around a lot more depending on what exercises I am doing. These will probably be your most expensive purchase, but you will use them over and over. There are so many different ways to use them and you can easily work your whole body in any number of ways. Almost any exercise can be done with a set of dumbbells.

Another piece of fitness equipment I use a lot are my medicine balls. There are so many different ways to use medicine balls too. You can get them quite cheap at large sporting goods stores or from the internet. I use a 4kg one and a 6 kg one. I use these in every session with my Personal Training clients and Bootcamps too. They are great to use on your own or for partner work.

One of my most used pieces of equipment is a step. I had a friend build me one from some timber he had laying around. It is about 12 inches high and wide and about 4 foot long. Clients can get on either end of it and step up and down together. It is amazing how much harder they can go with someone else to keep up with. The step combines well with the dumbbells or the medicine ball for step ups, step downs, sideways step ups, lungeing off the box or onto the box or even dips off the side. You can also jump on and off the box or even use it to do push ups with. Put your hands on it to make them easier, or your feet to make it harder. Clients that find it hard to get up and down from the floor, can even do ab exercises on it and it doubles as a bench as well. To improve fitness, a step is invaluable.

Another cheap piece of fitness equipment is the humble skipping rope. Uses are obvious and you will be surprised how hard it is if you haven’t tried it lately. If you persist though, you will improve your fitness really quickly with regular jump rope sessions and they are great for weight loss too.

There are many other inexpensive items to include in your home gym set up. These can include resistance bands which are great to take on holidays and yoga type mats which come in real handy when training outside on hard surfaces. Kettlebells are a great item to have, but they can be quite expensive so search around for them. There are many suppliers on the net. I use them a lot in my training sessions and my clients love them too. There are many kettlebell exercises for either strength development, endurance improvement or fat burning, and they work really, really well.

These are just some of the inexpensive ways to equip your home gym. Don’t be fooled into thinking you need an expensive pinloaded weight machine. All of my clients, not to mention myself, have fantastic results without them.

Cosmetic surgery is not a single term. In fact, it is collection of different procedures described in a single term. Cosmetic treatment is the craze of the modern era. New procedures are being developed with the advancement in technology to eliminate even the slightest of the risk involved.

There are two main types of surgery. One is the type in which a surgeon adds something to the body to make it better and in the second type a surgeon takes something from the body. Liposuction is one of the most common procedures performed by a cosmetic surgeon and it is one of the procedures related to the type of surgery in which he takes fat cells from the body.

In the modern method of removing fats from the body, an injection of phosphatidyl choline deoxy cholate is injected in the middle of the fat tissues and it dissolves all the fats present in that area. This method saves the person from the postoperative effects.

The other type of surgery is the one in which we add something to the body for example in case of breast enlargement surgery, breasts are enlarged with the use of silicon. Silicon is incorporated in breast tissue and their size is enlarged.

Men always have a dream to have 6 pack abs but it needs a lot of hard exercise to get them. Here the surgery comes with a solution. Men are provided with artificial 6 pack abs which is usually made of special plastic. These artificial abs are incorporated in the body of the person surgically.