Introduction to Effective Weight Loss

This article will give you some tips on how to burn fat and effective weight loss techniques to not only help you shed the pounds but keep them off. We hope that you enjoy reading the various sections and that you’ll find these weight loss tips helpful and informative.

In the first chapter you’ll find out why it is important to lose excess weight and to maintain your ideal weight. Being overweight can lead to various health problems; you’ll soon discover what some of these health risks are.

The different ways you can lose weight will also be revealed to you as well as how to keep from regaining the weight you have successfully shed. The importance of sticking to a realistic diet and exercise program that you can do will also be covered below.

Many diets fail and you’ll read some of the reasons behind that as well as the side effects of quitting or failing a diet attempt. You’ll learn how to choose a diet that will not fail you and some tips to help you stay committed to your diet program once you begin it.

So move forward and read on about how to burn fat for effective weight loss and start your journey towards a slimmer, fitter and healthier you…

Developing Your Raw Food Diet Plan

Before getting started on your new eating adventure you’ll want to have your raw food diet plan in place and ready to be followed. If you don’t normally eat a lot of raw foods already, gradually switching raw for cooked foods over a few weeks or more may be necessary for your plan to work out.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to try to help you do here…

Small changes can add up to big changes and changing everything all at once can be tough to do. So, begin by understanding your current food habits by asking your self “What raw foods do I already consume” and make a list. This is the first step in creating your raw food diet plan.

Once you have the list for your raw food diet plan the next step is to analyze what raw foods already in your life and the quality of them. Can they stay or do you need to replace them too?

Here’s an Exercise for Developing Your Raw Food Diet Plan:

Let’s say that you wrote down that you already ate salad. That’s good right? Not so fast – depending on where your salad comes from and how it’s made, it could be downright bad for you. From food borne illness bugs like e-coli and salmonella to pesticides and preservatives lettuce and complete salads alike can be good or bad for you.

So, how do you know what’s good or bad? The fact is that if you did not personally grow, harvest and prepare your own salads you can truly never know for sure. Another fact is that few people are going to do that so you have to a find a balance of a little bit of education and trust.

Commercially prepared and package lettuce and salads are not going to cut the muster. Neither are fast food restaurant salads. So, back to your list for your raw food diet plan; you’ll need to cross off all salads that are not made by you or someone you highly trust to serve clean healthy food.

Do this with all raw foods already on your list. It will reveal what habits you already have to assist you in making the switch to your raw food diet. The key is to continue with what you already like while you start to turn non-raw food versions into more preferable raw versions.

Changing Over From Cooked to Raw Food

Let’s say that you love and eat salsa regularly but you always buy it in a jar. To fit into your raw food diet plan you can easily make drop-dead delicious salsa fresh at home with very little fuss.

You can still have it – just scratch the salsa in a jar from your list and add in your easy to make and fresh raw food salsa. After a few times of making it you’ll never want to go back to that disgusting jar stuff ever again. Fresh made salsa is awesome.

Plan your switch to a raw food diet carefully and start changing your foods out gradually over time. Start with replacing just one meal a day or declare one day a week as a nothing but a raw food day. This will help make implementing your raw food diet plan a successful one.

Shopping For Your New Raw Food Diet Plan

As you begin switching out the foods you eat from cooked to raw, you will want to pay close attention to your shopping habits. But just because you’re changing over to raw, it doesn’t mean you have to find all new places to buy your food. You just have to start changing one or more of the items you buy.

Many stores today carry lots of organic fruit and vegetable choices now and as popularity has been growing, the prices are coming down to reasonable levels. Organic used to be very pricy when you could find it but today many farmers are helping to fill the gap by making organic produce more widely available.

One of the best ways to buy, and frequently at a lower price, is at a local farmer’s market. Here you’ll be able to find some of the freshest locally grown food and support local farmers as well as local small local business owners. Some areas have weekend only farmer’s markets and others are open every day of the week.

Another great way to eat super fresh and save a little money at the same time is by visiting a “pick your own farm”. These are great places to take kids along to teach them the value of harvesting your own food. The farmer gives you a basket; you pick the food from their field and pay a small price in comparison to a grocery store for the basket you just filled up.

Pick your own farms are a great money saver, they’re educational, good for a little exercise and can be lots of fun for the whole family. And so can your own personal backyard or sun porch garden to replace a portion of your grocery store list.

Don’t forget about shopping online either. You can find deals and a wide variety of raw whole food items by shopping on the internet – just be sure you do your research and do business with a reputable companies and brands.

Kitchen Technology for Your Raw Food Diet Plan

If you want to go on a raw food diet but can’t see yourself eating certain items cold and completely raw you can do add a little bit of heating to your plan. No cooking allowed but a quick blanch can change things up for you in a good way.

Take broccoli for instance. If you despise having to eat it cold, boil some water, drop the broccoli in, give it a stir and say out loud “this is going to be great” and quickly remove from the water. Season it with a dribble of olive oil, black pepper with a tinge of sea salt or lemon juice for a surprisingly good taste and texture.

That’s a raw food recipe that can work with a number of vegetables to spruce up the flavor and texture while taking the “boring” out of it.

Other than those typical kitchen items a juicer is a nice addition to your raw food diet plan. You’ll want a good quality juicer that extracts the most amount of juice possible out of the produce you put into it and it must be easy to clean. If it’s a pain to clean then you’ll likely use it less often.

When using a juicer with fruit you’ll want to pay attention to calories as the juice contains a concentration of sugars. An apple may only be 90 calories but when you juice four of them for some fresh apple juice they can add up quickly.

Don’t through all those valuable fiber leftovers from the juicer away either. And that brings us to the next piece of raw food diet kitchen technology – namely, the food dehydrator.

What you do is take the leftovers from the juicer; in this case it’s apple, mix in a little ground cinnamon with a tiny bit of stevia for a sweetener mixed in. Next, flatten it out, dehydrate it and break up into smaller pieces that are not only delicious but really good for you too.

Dehydrators are great for all kinds of uses. You can turn a seasonal trip of farmer’s market great buys into a years worth of dehydrated apple slices. From apple wafers or slices to homemade fruit roll-ups, a food dehydrator is a valuable piece of kitchen technology for the raw food enthusiast.

To wrap up our kitchen technology here, a blender or food processor for making smoothies, meal replacement shakes, salsas, slaws and other raw food recipes gives you a large variety of choices when preparing your meals.

Make Your Raw Food Diet Plan a Reality

Going on a raw food diet is a lifestyle change that everyone chooses for different reasons. And in these days of an over processed food supply, raw whole food is something your body can identify with in a historical and intimate way.

Whatever your reason for going raw; better health, more energy, weight loss, mental clarity and focus, you can do it by creating small steps in your raw food diet plan. Just take it slow at first and do small manageable steps that you can deal with one step at a time.

Focus on one raw food item or meal at a time and before you know it, your raw food diet plan will be complete. So go back to “The Pathway to a Raw Food Diet” to read it again if you need to, then start writing down your own plan and take your first step to a healthier life.

 

Most people, men and women alike have heard about all of the great benefits of the raw food diet, but many people are still not sure to exactly what it is and how they personally benefit from eating raw foods.

When you are first considering getting into eating a raw food diet, you’re probably at a point in your life where you’re feeling a little sluggish or that something in your body is feeling “off.” The fact is that we’re tired, overweight, burnt out and feeling stressed.

A key problem here is that we aren’t getting the proper nutrition and by you looking at a raw food diet now is your body telling you it is lacking important nutrients that it desperately needs.

A raw food diet doesn’t mean you have to go all out vegetarian either. Many raw food eaters will even go as far as eating raw meats and dairy products but this can be a bit risky so we’re just going to stick to the safer fruits and vegetables here.

Great Benefits Obtained on a Raw Food Diet

When you go grocery shopping you might have all of the right intentions in the world of buying good and healthy vegetables and fruits, thinking you’re getting a decent variety of the right vitamins and minerals your body needs. Then you bring your bounty home and destroy those beneficial nutrients by cooking them to death.

The way you prepare your foods can actually destroy most of those valuable nutritional benefits that you so proudly loaded into your grocery cart and brought home. Vitamins like Vitamin C, important for boosting your immune system and Vitamin B which provides you with energy, are drastically reduced by heating and cooking your food. If you must cook them a quick blanch is recommended for the best nutrient preservation.

Losing Weight on a Raw Food Diet

Raw food diets can help you lose weight too. Fruits and vegetables in general are very filling but even better at satisfying our hunger when eaten in their raw state as opposed to cooking them.

Within reason, you can have an unlimited amount raw fruits and vegetables that are full of fiber and provide you with a positive catalyst for losing weight. And all that fiber and the naturally occurring digestive enzymes make a great colon cleanser which in its own is a strong helping hand in maintaining a good healthy weight.

Gaining Energy with a Raw Food Diet

Another benefit of eating a raw food diet is energy gain. Most raw food lovers will choose a wide variety of foods to implement into their diet. The best thing that you can do is to try to incorporate every color of the rainbow that you can to maximize your exposure to vitamins, minerals and phyto-nutrients.

Typically, the larger variety of colors you choose, the larger the number of fatigue-fighting nutrients that are available to your body.

Slowing down aging is another perk to eating your food in the raw. Anytime we alter our foods by cooking, even cutting, their natural benefits begin breaking down. You simply can not get any better food than picking it raw off of the plant and immediately eating it. Once picked from the plant the breakdown of nutrients begins. So the fresher picked and the faster eaten once cut up or juiced the better off you are.

One common benefit that people come to realize is all those antioxidants and anti aging rewards you get when consuming raw food. You can actually see these benefits occur in health of your skin. Shortly after you begin your raw food diet you’ll likely start to notice improvements to your skin and you can trust that similar benefits are happening inside your body as well.

Dangers of Pursuing a Raw Food Diet

A true “hard-core” raw food diet isn’t only about vegetarian diet with fruits and vegetables, nuts and grains. It also involves the eating of uncooked meat, fish, unpasteurized milk (and other dairy products), and raw eggs.

With proper food handling, this is usually not a problem for most people, but for people who have medical issues, pregnant or a weak immune system, a raw food diet may do you more harm than it does you good.

If you have any medical issues it’s a great idea to your medical go-to professional and ask them if a 100% raw food diet would help or be bad you. The last thing you want is to pursue the health benefits from a raw food diet and end up making a pre-existing condition worse.

There are also certain things you’ll need to keep in mind when eating raw foods. For example most people don’t know that the eyes and green patches on the skin of a potato hold toxins and need to be discarded. And that all fruits and veggies need to be washed well before consumption.

Tips for Scrubbing Your Raw Food Clean

Fill a 32 oz spray bottle with white distilled vinegar and dissolve ¼ cup of regular table salt to create a chemical and pesticide stripping solution that also does a wonderful job of killing many harmful microbes. Simply wash your veggies and fruits with clean water – spray the vinegar/salt solution on the produce using your hand to do a “soft scrub” – then re-rinse with clean water. This does a better job for less cost than many store bought solutions.

You’re after an improvement to your health and energy level and the last thing you want is some nasty bug or chemical residue to send you down the wrong road. Obtaining fresh ingredients from a reliable source is very important for your produce but even more so if you’re going on a full blown raw food diet.

Raw Food Diet Food Sources

There’s nothing quite like raw food that’s pulled right out of your own organic garden and eaten instantly after being washed. Next in line is organic produce grown by others locally followed by trucked-in organic produce.

Further down your list of choices is raw food that’s been grown by others using pesticides, irradiated killing good and bad microbes, or had chemical preservatives and shellacs added to them so they stay fresh and looking pretty on the grocery store shelf. These need to be cleaned thoroughly before consuming using your vinegar/salt solution above.

There’s no doubt about it that the absolute best way to ensure you’re eating the healthiest raw foods possible is to grow and harvest your own product, raise and butcher your own meat and gather your own milk and dairy items.

The thing is though, not everyone’s able to do that. Most of us are too busy earning a living and need to rely on others to grow and raise the food we eat. In this case the best thing is to find a local farmer’s market where the food is generally raised in the local area.

You just need to be a smart about the food you buy and insist on freshness and quality as much as you possibly can. Fresh is better than frozen but frozen is better than canned, steamed, smoked, pasteurized or processed foods because they all fall out of the raw food arena. So, be sure to buy accordingly and read “Starting Right on a Raw Food Diet Plan” before you begin.

 

Supplements for Building Muscle

The best supplements for building muscle will vary depending on what you want to accomplish and at what point you are starting from. One thing is for certain though and a starting point for anyone that works out and wants to build muscle needs to include a source of protein in their muscle building plans.

For the hard core fitness nuts, you’ll want lots of quality and digestible protein. You probably knew that already but the key phrase for you here is “quality and digestible protein”.

Protein Tops the List of Best Supplements for Building Muscle

So, the best supplement for building muscle has to start with a well made protein shake. The right protein shakes are a great way to load up on easy to digest protein without having to consume large amounts of unwanted and unhealthy fats. Many weight lifters and fitness trainers recommend the use of protein shakes with other supplements to assist in building muscle.

When you are searching for the very best supplements for building your muscles you’ll want to pay close attention to the ingredients and reputation of the manufacturer. Many supplements for building muscles feature different ingredient combinations and all manufacturers will give you all of the right reasons as to why theirs is the best.

Names Associated With the “Best Supplements for Building Muscle”:

• Protein
• Glutamine
• Nitric Oxide

If you’ve been involved with muscle building for any length of time you’ve probably heard of most if not all of those names above. A few are even questionable when considering safety and ethics. Whatever type of supplement you are considering, you’ll need to look at the different types of ingredients, delivery systems and effectiveness for what you want to accomplish.

For example and at the top of our list for good reason is protein. Protein comes in so many forms and it’s important to understand that each will digest differently and you’ll need to time its consumption as a part of your muscle building routine. Egg, Whey, Casein, Soy, Pea, Chia, Hemp, Rice and the list goes on and they all digest differently.

For most people when choosing the best supplement for building muscle will gravitate towards using whey with vegans being the exception. Whey can be digested by your body in about thirty minutes and that’s important for the muscle builder after a workout.

However, the best protein supplement for building muscle is a combination of different types of protein that all digest at different rates creating a time-released protein feed delivered to your muscles. When you look at egg protein, digestion runs into 1 – 3 hours and with Casein it’s 2 – 7 hours. See what I mean? 

Putting it all together in the right amounts of what’s best, how much to take and when to take it can be a challenge for many people. For most of us, our best option is to pick up a quality protein supplement that is already scientifically formulated to provide what we need to achieve our goals.

The Next Best Supplements for Building Muscle

After settling in with the best protein supplement for what you want to do (e.g. spending half an hour working out vs. climbing Mount Kilimanjaro) Glutamine and Nitric Oxide are next at the top of our list.

There are many of these types of products on the market and both Glutamine and Nitric Oxide are used in special formulations to assist us with increased energy, stamina and recovery. When choosing these type products, stick with a company that has a good reputation and adheres to quality manufacturing processes. Then pay attention to the directions for best results.

You can find more articles like this on a variety of fitness topics at http://MyFitnessNut.com and if you would like to know what we think are the best supplements for building muscle simply send us and email at http://myfitnessnut.com/contact-us/ and ask Frank or Anna.

Tips to Build Muscle Mass Faster and Larger

You’ve probably already learned that eating more protein helps your body to build muscle mass more effectively and efficiently. So if you’re looking to build muscle mass, eating more protein becomes a great asset in your workouts. Note that the protein you consume does not have to be animal protein because there are many other types of foods that work even better in some people than protein from animals.

Vegetarians Can Sometimes Build Muscle Mass Faster

Many vegetarians for instance manage to build muscle mass without ever putting animal protein in their body. The protein best suited for vegetarians needs to come from plant or dairy sources like beans, peas, nuts, rice and protein supplements that contain whey, rice protein, pea protein and if you choose soy protein.

The advantage to using plant and dairy sources to build muscle mass is that the fat content is less than in animals. Additionally, the fats found in plants are generally the “good fats” that your body needs and are less likely to pack on body fat, contribute to high blood pressure and cholesterol like animal fat can.

 Combine Meat and Protein Supplements to Build Muscle Mass

If you’re the kind of person who enjoys eating meat and eggs but do not like to consume large amounts every day then using protein supplements to build muscle mass is a great addition to your diet. If you’re trying to lose fat while building up muscle mass you can mix your protein supplements with water. If you want to gain weight then use milk for some added fat and calories or even opt for a complete protein meal replacement shake.

Keep in mind that it takes more energy (calories) for your digestive system to break down meat protein. Because of this, eating meat will sustain your body for a longer period of time than drinking a protein shake that digests much easier and faster. Using a good quality protein supplement can speed up your metabolism and you can be building muscle mass at a faster rate than the muscle builder who eats primarily animal protein.

Build Muscle Mass with Proper Nutrients and Doing Weight Training Correctly

What’s important to remember is that to build muscle mass and maintain a healthy body, getting proper nutrition is extremely important but so is doing weight training correctly. For example, many people believe that the harder and more often they work out the faster they’ll build muscle mass. This thinking can lead to failure because over-training can tear down your muscles and your muscles require rest in order to build back up.

Did you catch that important tip? Your muscles heal, build and grow during rest after your workouts. If you don’t let your muscles rest the muscle tissues can’t repair and build back up resulting in the failure of your muscle building plans. For this reason, when you do your weight training you’ll want to alternate days like one day on and one day off.

If you want to workout everyday your best bet is to alternate working different muscle groups such as work on your arms one day, your legs the next day and your chest, back and shoulder muscles all on different days. This does the same thing because as you are building up your muscle mass each muscle group gets the rest they need to be able to repair and grow.

The Best Way to Build Muscle Mass Effectively

1. Be consistent but don’t overdo your workouts.
2. Alternate workout days or alternate working different muscle groups.
3. Your muscles need rest time to repair and build.
4. Eat high protein foods, use protein supplements or do both.

Probably the most important thing is to avoid disappointment from trying to do too much too quickly. You now know that rest is important to build muscle mass but if you overdo it, it could lead to injury. If you injure yourself you’ll not be able to weight train for weeks, possibly months and while resting for that long the muscle mass you’ve built up so far will become lost.

If you’re just starting on your journey to building muscle mass you may not have equipment yet then the article Build Muscle Mass without Weights might be helpful and new or not Building Muscles for Men and Women may be an interesting read.

 

Going to a gym five or more days a week to build up your muscle mass can be time consuming, really expensive, and it’s something that not everyone wants to do or can afford. Even if money is not an issue, the fact of having to “go to the gym” is.

What’s the alternative though?

The answer is that you can start building muscle mass right now and do it without using any weights or exercise equipment at all. Many people believe that you have to “pump some iron” or use heavy resistance equipment to build muscle mass. In reality, there are some really effective exercises you can do right in your home or office that can provide some really great results.

Using Your Own Body Weight to Build Muscles

The easiest and most common exercises you can do without using weights would be squats, pull-ups and push-ups in their most basic form. If you’re severely out of shape, beginners yoga or isometric exercises can be good, but some of these types of exercises can be tricky and it’s important that you perform them correctly.

Some Tips on Building Muscles Without Weights

Push-ups: When doing pushups, you might find that you can’t even manage to do a single push up. If this is you, then try to doing them on your knees as this reduces the difficulty greatly. If this is still too much for you then do your push-ups off the wall standing upright.

Once you can do a set of 10 start increasing the difficulty gradually like moving from standing upright to a set of stairs. Once you can do a set of 10, increase again by doing your pushups on your knees. Next, move to the full body pushup and once you get used to these, and you will in time, go back to the stairs putting your feet on the first step or two with your head facing downward for an even more intense muscle building workout.

Pull-ups: For doing pull ups you need a pull-up bar which can be mounted between a doorway. Pull-up bars are relatively inexpensive and it’s very important that the bar you use can easily sustain the weight of your entire body – plus some. If you can’t afford or do not have access to a pull-up bar, go to your local playground and use the monkey bars as your pull-up bar.

Just as in doing push-ups, if you are unable to do one single pull-up ask your spouse or a workout partner to help you take some of your weight off by assisting you in doing your first pull-ups. If help is unavailable or you’re just too shy to ask, use a stool to help reduce the weight that your arms need to lift. Continue with this help until you can do two pull-ups, and you will, then work on your own. Push yourself in each workout session until you can do 3, 4, 5…

And you will.

Squats: When you do squat exercises you want to put your hands behind your head then squat down while making sure that your knees do not go over your toes. What you want is to push your butt out and try to keep your knees behind your toes.

It’s a good idea to stretch your legs a bit before starting your squats then begin by squatting down as far as you can and then stand back up fully erect. These can be challenging at first but as you begin building up your leg muscles, and you will, they’ll get easier. Soon you’ll be doing complete squats and you’ll develop your ability to do more and more reps as time goes on.

Key Points When Building Muscles Without Weights

A key point to remember when you’re building muscle without using weights is that as you improve, and I’ll say it again… you will improve if you keep after it, is to constantly challenge yourself to do a little more in each session.

Another important point is that adding more reps without adding additional weight will increase your endurance level but not be as helpful at increasing your muscle mass. So, you’ll want to get creative of finding ways to keep up the intensity of your exercises.

A good way to increase your intensity is do things like placing your feet on a step or sofa while doing push-ups. When this gets easy to do move on to doing one arm push-ups… one arm pull-ups and one legged squats.

You get the idea. Just keep adding more resistance if you want to keep building muscle mass. Something as simple as a backpack with some bottles of water inside could do the trick once you get to this point. Each quart of water weighs right at 2 pounds each so you can easily judge what you’re adding each time.

As you can see, you can get pretty far at building muscles without buying weights or gym memberships just by using a little creativity. Visit http://MyFitnessNut.com for more muscle building tips and fitness ideas.

 

The most important advice for beginners upfront when doing yoga poses is to practice yoga safely. Like any form of exercise if you push yourself too much and overdo things you can get yourself into trouble, but with yoga you can stretch and pull muscles that you didn’t even know you had.

Tips on Yoga Poses for Beginners

Be sure to take your time and learn the yoga poses accurately from a knowledgeable person or video training that can demonstrate the proper form to you. Yoga videos with verbal instructions and follow along demonstrations can work well by helping you to learn the many yoga poses at your own pace.

In other words don’t try to figure yoga out on your own without some good solid instructions.

If you’ve been leading a sedentary lifestyle you need to work into doing yoga poses gradually. A goal many yoga beginners start off with is to do just 15 minutes (less if you are severely out of shape) each day and gradually increase your time as you feel your poses getting easier to do.

Getting Good at Doing Yoga Poses

Trust that you will get better and better at yoga with a little bit of practice and consistency. Be very careful not to push too hard and injure yourself while working your way up slowly from around 15 minutes a day to around 30 minutes a day.

It’s a good idea to wear something comfortable and use an exercise mat, or at least a nice cushy blanket on the floor. Other than that, all you need is some good instructions to follow along with as you learn the various poses.

One of the great things about yoga is that it can fit into your life no matter what shape you are in starting out. You’ll want to be sure to pay close attention to your form and be sure to take time to learn how to do basic postures correctly.

We’ll show you how to do this with a follow along yoga video in a moment.

Yoga Poses can Help Back Pain

Some people will start practicing yoga to help with their back pain and some doctors even recommend it. There are lots of yoga postures that can help eliminate back, hip, shoulder and neck pain. A few common yoga postures that can help out your back area are the forward bend, pelvic tilt and the side angle poses.

Yoga Poses to Help Get Pregnant?

People who are more familiar with yoga will tell you that there are many health benefits associated with its practice. There are even yoga postures that women use for infertility or just to help along the process of getting pregnant for the impatient couple.

Women have reported great results using relaxation yoga poses after sex to help get them pregnant. So yes, yoga poses can help you get pregnant and have a healthy and happy baby.

Yoga Poses Used to Relax You

Taking up yoga can teach you how to De-stress yourself and let your body relax. You’ll learn poses that help you relax all of your body’s muscles and relax your mind at the same exact time. Take your time learning your yoga poses the right way in the beginning so that you’ll forever receive the most value from every yoga pose you do from here on out.

What are the Best Yoga Poses for Beginners?

As a beginner in yoga you run the risk of becoming overwhelmed when first starting out. It seems like there is much to learn when just starting out but a good yoga instructor will tell you that you don’t need to learn it all to start getting results. Take it one step at a time and learn a little something new with each one of your yoga practice sessions.

The best thing that you can do is to learn a few yoga poses first and add more time and new ones as you grow and develop.

Below you’ll find various categories of poses along with a short description on the benefits of each type of pose. From there we’ll finish up by showing you a couple of examples of yoga poses and provide you with some help on putting it all together.

The many benefits that yoga provides are well within your reach so let’s cover what some of common yoga pose categories are and what they’re good for.

What are Standing Yoga Poses?

Standing yoga poses are done in the upright position and help you relieve tension and aches and pains in your body. They are also great for kidney function, circulation and breathing. With consistent practice standing poses can help improve the strength of your neck, shoulder, hips and knees.

What are Seated Yoga Poses?

Seated yoga poses are, as the name implies, done while in a seated position. These are the calming poses that people use to help relieve their stress. These seated poses can help you feel soothed, relaxed and revived. Even though they help you feel less tired many people find that they sleep much better after doing seated yoga poses.

What are Inverted and Balancing Yoga Poses?

The inverted poses are basically “legs up and head down” where this reverse in gravity brings a supply of fresh oxygen rich blood to your heart muscle and head. This pose is beneficial for improving circulation and refreshing tired, achy or swollen legs after a long day of being on your feet.

The balancing yoga poses are very beneficial in developing core muscle strength and greatly improves muscle control, coordination, flexibility and agility. In other words, these are some good poses to work into your sessions as soon as you can.

What are Yoga Side Bend and Twist Poses?

The side bends yoga poses are just that – side bends. These are especially useful for stimulating some of your organs like the kidneys, liver and stomach.

The twist pose is a pose that you can do in a sitting or standing position. Twists are great for strengthening and helping with stiff necks, achy backs, shoulders and even great to help relieve headaches. These can be a bit intense for some people but when done the right way can increase the overall flexibility of your spine.

What are Reclining Yoga Poses?

Reclining yoga poses that are in this group fall primarily into two categories namely, the prone pose and the supine pose.

1.) Prone is done lying on your stomach on the floor facing down, doing poses where you mostly hold yourself on your knees and hands.

2.) The supine poses are just the opposite where you are lying on your back in more relaxed positions. These poses are restful poses that are great to do toward the end your yoga workout session.

What are Forward and Backward Bend Poses?

Forward bend poses uses movements that can help you to strengthen your lower back and your hamstrings and are good for helping you improve digestion and circulation.

Backward bend yoga poses use movements that help improve deeper breathing and have been know to help people with depression. Because of the deeper breathing accomplished in these poses your body and mind will feel more energized and revitalized at the end of the session.

Learn to Breathe Right and Relax Yourself

Learning to breathe correctly needs to be your top priority if it’s not already. So, get a grip on to the fact that besides feeling a little overwhelmed at the many types of yoga poses there are to learn, you’re now being told that you need to occupy your time learning proper breathing techniques.

Learning to breathe right takes some time but only at first and in a short period of time of focusing on your breathing, you’ll be automatically breathing right without even thinking about it. Breathing correctly is so important so do not ignore learning it.

Doing Your First Yoga Pose

Be graceful in your movements and promote flow while doing your yoga poses. The easiest way to say this is to not move from pose to pose but to “flow” from pose to pose in graceful movements such as a dancer or ice skater might do.

There’s no need to follow along with this pose as its only purpose is to give you an idea of how a yoga pose goes. If you’re new, it’s best to use an instructor or instructional yoga video to learn from.

So for the sake of making a choice of one of many yoga poses we could do, let’s demonstrate the Cobra Upward Pose which is a great beginner’s pose because it can be done in a few simple and easily learned steps.

Firstly, lie down on mat or blanket with your forehead to the floor. With your legs stretched backwards pull them closely together. Next, put your hands flat on the floor underneath your shoulders, take a deep breath and begin raising your head pushing your neck and shoulders back while using your hands to push your body up and back until you are holding an arched pose.

Remember to breathe correctly and flow in and out of your pose as you repeat it.

You can see a visual demonstration doing the “Cobra Upward Facing Dog” in this video and even follow along if you like as you learn how to do this simple yet effective pose.

[video_youtube video_url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwzHiRxA2eg” width=”480″ height=”300″]

When looking at a pose like that it doesn’t seem so difficult, but if you are new or out of shape, do yourself a favor and only go as far as you can each time and listen closely to what your body is saying to you. Only you can be the judge of what you can or can’t do and even if you want to push yourself, don’t run the risk of injury and setting yourself backwards.

Be Smart and Yoga Poses can Take You a Long Way

The great thing about yoga is that it can be very gentle from all fitness levels as you slowly work your way into it and it can be done virtually anywhere you go. All in all, yoga is a full body workout that can stretch and tone each one of your muscle groups giving you more flexibility and mobility in your everyday life.

Take yoga seriously as it can truly benefit your body, mind and life as a whole. No matter what your physical condition is, there are likely several yoga poses for beginners that you can start doing today and see positive results in a matter of a few short weeks.

 

Create a Muscle Building Schedule that Works for You

Your goal is building muscle but your time is limited. You need to create a do-able workout schedule but not sure how to pull it all together. With the truth be told…

Building muscle is not a “One Size Fits All” Plan of Action

When creating your muscle building workout schedule the one thing that you need to remember is that no two people are going to build muscle mass at the same rate when working out the same amount of time. Just as men and women, the young and old all lose and gain weight differently, building muscles is no different.

When couples decide to lose weight together, who is it that ends up losing weight the fastest?

Do an online search for workout schedules and you’ll come up with pages and pages of free and paid membership schedules and complete programs to help you create and follow a set workout schedule but let me try to help simplify this for you here.

Building Muscle with One Scheduled Workout at a Time

When you are working your muscles out you need to let them recover from the workouts that you put them through. One good way to do this and allow you to get exercise daily is to target different muscle groups and rotate your workout routines giving one group recovery time while you’re working another group.

Putting Together Your Muscle Building Schedule:

You need to put together the times that you will dedicate to your muscle building routine. Keep in mind 15 minutes every other day is better than no minutes spent exercising at all, so do what you need to do to get started right away. It would be great if you could eventually get it up to 30 minutes 5 days a week.

When deciding what muscle groups to work with and when to work them, a routine working the following groups on each one of your scheduled muscle building days is:

Workout Day 1 – Back and Arm Muscles

Workout Day 2 – Chest and Triceps

Workout Day 3 – Shoulders and Abs

Workout Day 4 – Legs and Buttocks

Rotate back to “Workout Day 1 – Back and Arm Muscles” and start all over again.

Using an approach like this for your workout schedule for building muscle is effective for beginners because each separate routine does not take that long to do, it allows your muscles enough time to rebuild and recover and the best thing is that you can see and feel the results pretty quickly.

When Building Muscle it’s Important to Rest and Recover

It is very important to rest your muscles so they can rebuild because during your workout you will have stretched your muscles hard and when you relax to recover, they start to build and develop strength. Both men and women build strength but men have a tendency to build muscle mass larger and faster than women.

Planning Your Workout Schedule for Building Muscle Quickly

The discussion continues over the best time of day to plan your workout schedule for building muscle fast. Many fitness experts recommend doing your training first thing in the morning if possible. This is especially good if you have job that requires little movement because your morning workout will give your metabolism a boost throughout the whole day and allow your muscles to grow as your body rests and recovers.

Building Muscle Consistently Works Best

Going back to what we discussed earlier, if building muscle is your goal then you must create a schedule that is do-able for you so you can stick with it. Consistency is of the utmost importance because if you do not use and workout your muscles on a regular basis you’ll regress and the work that you put in already will have been mostly lost.

If you don’t use your muscles, you’re going to lose your muscles.

With that said, if you don’t have enough time to work out in the morning hours then pick a time that best suits your schedule. The main thing is that you train on a regular and consistent basis, rest to recover then keep after it.

So whether you choose 15 or 30 minutes a day, 15 to 30 minutes every other day or making the decision to workout only three days a week set your schedule and stick to it as close as you possibly can. Being consistent is the key.

If weight training is brand new to you then start with a beginner’s workout schedule for building muscle by lifting smaller light weights at first until they become so easy to do that you need to increase the weight in order to progress.

You’ll feel when the time is right to add additional weight to your routine. Gradual increases in your weight lifting are a great way to benefit from each workout session while reducing the possibility of injury – this is very, very important for beginners.

Setting up your muscle building schedule is half of the battle. The other half is learning the different exercises, how to do them correctly and sticking with your plan. Day by day you’ll notice small results that will develop into bigger results. As your routine gets easier, it’s time to step it up to adding in heavier weights and longer workout times as you can fit them in.

When you’re ready to get started building muscles, visit us at http://MyFitnessNut.com where we can help you learn exercises that cover all of your major muscle groups. If you will dedicate the time to begin building muscles by setting a schedule and agreeing to stick to it then we’ll provide you with three great muscle building training programs to help get you started.

 

Are you thinking about getting into doing yoga? If so, you are making a step in the right direction. There are many benefits that yoga can bring you and it is a perfect way to exercise for beginners because it can be adjusted to get more challenging as you progress and become more fit.

Yoga for the Beginner

As a beginner it is always best to take your time and learn the proper posture for the many different yoga poses available to you. You might even think about taking a “yoga for beginners” class to get personal instructions to learn the various yoga poses.

There are many qualified yoga instructors you can learn from, possibly right in your back yard, but here we are going to focus our attention on giving you a well rounded introduction and some Hatha Yoga training videos, compliments of MyFitnessNut.com that you can use to get started in your own home and at your own pace.

First, Let’s Cover Some Benefits of Yoga for Beginners

Among the many top benefits of yoga you’ll find happening is that you’ll start to become much more flexible. Not mentally flexible, physically flexible, but in time and with practice you’ll find mental flexibility occurs and a more confident point of view materialize as you discipline and develop yourself.

Simply put, yoga is good for your body and your mind.

Yoga can help you be calmer, more in control and reduce stress in your life. It can help you improve your self confidence, let you concentrate and think clearer and promote your overall well being.

Some people decide to practice yoga as a means to simplify and de-stress their busy life because it can help train you to calm your mind and find peace. Yoga can renew and invigorate your mind and body to thrive in a healthy state.

Let’s face it, in today’s hustle and bustle life that many of us lead, finding a good stress reliever is important and yoga is also about deep breathing and relaxation which even on their own promote stress relief, calmness and harmony in your body.

Best of all, yoga is an excellent fitness workout for most anyone regardless of their current physical condition, size, weight, sex or age. It is purposely designed to give all of your muscle groups a good healthy workout.

Yoga is great for beginners and people who are out of shape, overweight and maybe have a difficult time moving because most of the beginner’s poses are very gentle on your body.

In a short period of time you will find that yoga will help you gain fuller control over your joints and muscles and you’ll find that you’ll be gaining much more control over your body. Some of the areas you’ll see more flexibility in are your legs, arms, shoulders, hips, abdomen and back.

Yoga Involves Balance which Develops Core Body Strength

Yoga involves doing a lot of balancing in the poses and this develops solid core body strength without bulking huge muscle mass. Some of the yoga poses you’ll be doing will involve balancing on your arms and hands, on one leg and some have you moving slowly thus helping you develop better control and core strength.

It takes time to develop and get used to doing yoga poses but the results you get from have a toner and stronger body is well worth the effort. With regular practice your legs, stomach, back, arms, shoulders and chest will become more toned and defined.

And what do you think the outcome of that is going to be?

Other people will see you more toned and defined, healthier, happier and you’ll feel more confident and attractive to a potential mate. There’s nothing like it for a great self confidence booster too.

Yoga for Beginners Provides for Better Breathing

One important part of yoga that’s often overlooked by beginners is that yoga helps teach you how to breathe more properly than you’ve been used to in the past. Both adults and children alike can benefit from this and it is specially well-suited for people with asthma and other breathing disorders.

Learning advanced breathing techniques can help condition your lungs for increased lung capacity to deliver more life giving oxygen throughout your entire body. If needed for allergy sufferers there are advanced breathing techniques that can be used to help clear the nasal passages and free up life giving oxygen flow for your entire body.

Yoga for Beginners – What’s not to Like?

There are lots of good reasons why people would want to learn and practice yoga. Whole body fitness is probably the top of most people’s list but many people see yoga as a way to develop themselves as a better person.

Feeling stronger, more confident, flexible and resilient is just the beginning. Breathing better, increasing stamina and warding off allergies are all great side benefits but as you stick with it and progress, your mental state will begin to evolve with your newly fit body. You’ll feel calmer and more secure in your life and that benefits you and everyone around you.

How Can a Beginner Get Into Yoga?

When you’re getting into yoga for the first time, where you’ll want to start depends a lot upon you. Do you want the social aspect and support of learning in a group? Or do you feel more comfortable starting out alone in the privacy of your own home?

And then there’s always the in between, where you hire a personal one-on-one yoga instructor that will work with you on a personal and private level.

There are many choices and different levels of advancement in yoga too. You can find classes, videos and private instructors for the beginners to advance, from children to seniors, to pregnant women and even people with certain disabilities including the morbidly obese.

Our goal at MyFitnessNut.com is to get you started moving in the right direction when you’re considering yoga, or anything regarding the improvement of your health and fitness levels. To that point, we’ve prepared 70 different follow along Hatha Yoga for Beginners poses that are great for both beginners and hard core fitness nuts alike.

 

The combining of foods is generally pretty easy to understand and this is the basis for this healthy nutrition guide. It all started from the studying of the effects of gastric physiology. It evolved from the understanding of how digestive juices and enzymes truly function and how certain combinations of foods are digested more easily and efficiently than other foods.

It’s not always what you eat, but how you eat and what you eat what with.

This Healthy Nutrition Guide was Designed to Meet Those Fundamentals

What it really comes down to is that it’s not what you eat but how your body digests the foods that you put into it. The combination of and quality of your food will greatly determine the nourishment your body receives.

When you eat the right foods together, your overall health can improve dramatically. Side benefits include feeling better – even younger, losing weight, sleeping better and more energy throughout your day. Not to mention a healthy and more fit body and immune system.

Who in the world does not want more energy and to look and feel younger?

Use this Healthy Nutrition Guide to Start then Keep Learning

This healthy nutrition guide was designed to get you thinking in the right direction. By no means does it even scratch the surface of the different elements related to a complete and healthy nutrition plan. But for most people a healthy nutrition plan is not all that far away.

When you embark upon your journey you will notice small changes to your health and how your body feels as you begin to eat better, digest better and free up your system to feed your body’s cells with the nutrients they need for top performance.

Develop Your Healthy Nutritional Plan in Steps

Change your nutritional plan gradually by adding little changes and new habits each day and before long you will look back and be amazed at how far you’ve come.

Following this Healthy Nutrition Guide can Save You Money!

If you want to eat better it can actually cost you less money. Saving money by eating better and getting better nutrition sounds like a pretty good deal. It is and with some simple adjustments in the budget to transfer the costs of processed and restaurant prepared foods into “your fresh food department” you can save money and enhance your health all at the same time.

You might be surprised to find that your ten dollar restaurant meal will buy you more fresh fruits and vegetable than you could possibly eat in a single meal while providing more healthy nutrition than you may have ever thought possible.

If you’ve found this healthy nutrition guide useful please let us know by hitting the “Like” button on this page and then grab a hold of some more health and fitness resources at http://MyFitnessNut.com.

The first thing you’ll want to do there is to sign up for the My Fitness Nut Newsletter where you’ll get three fitness training workouts on videos that can work wonders to enhance this healthy nutrition guide by adding in a fitness routine.