Archives February 2014

A workout is the combination of exercises that you do in a single session. And remember that you can’t (and shouldn’t) do the same workouts every day. Strength training involves tearing muscle fibers, so that means you need rest periods for each muscle group so that they can rebuild into bigger and stronger muscles.

So, you should exercise two or three times a week, but not on consecutive days. Your muscles will need at least 48 hours to rest and repair before they can grow. If you’re not doing a full body workout, you can focus on different muscle groups.

Before anything else, makes sure that it’s safe for you to work out. There are many possible reasons why you should refrain from strength training, but it boils down to one thing: if you don’t feel well, don’t force yourself. If you’re feeling tired or experiencing some pain, strength training workouts may do more harm than good.

Always listen to what your body is telling you.

Next, make sure you have your equipment handy. Strength training requires a few bits of equipment beyond a good pair of shoes and comfortable clothes. That may be good enough for jogging, but not for strength training workouts. To begin with, you’ll need ample space, perhaps a chair without arms and one that doesn’t rock, barbells and dumbbells, and maybe even some sort of special training balls.

Gauging the Intensity of Your Strength Training Workouts

Once you get into your exercises, you need to determine the right intensity for you. You need to progress to increase your strength, and at the same time you need to be careful that you don’t injure yourself by trying too hard. Go for light weights at first, and then increase as you become accustomed to each weight.

Watching others do a strength training workout session such as in the video below can be very helpful.

You also need to track your reps (repetitions of doing a certain exercise). For example, if you cannot complete two sets of 10 reps in good form, reduce the weight until you can lift it properly for 10 reps. Rest for a minute or two, and then do another set. When you can do 10 reps and you need to rest because the weight is too heavy after ten reps, then you’re working at the proper intensity. And if you can do twenty reps straight, this means you will need heavier weights next time.

Progression is essential if you want your strength training workouts to provide you with the maximum benefits. Continuously challenging your muscles is the key to strength training. To help you put your workout routine together, you can borrow our muscle building training series on video (no cost) when you subscribe to the MyFitnessNut.com Newsletter.

An Introduction to the Belly Fat Epidemic

Millions of people struggle with weight loss. One of the primary areas in which fat collects is around the midsection. We’re talking about abdominal fat or belly fat. And as you get older, the fat continues to accumulate around the midsection. It’s so common that we even have names for it. We call it the “spare tire,” “beer belly,” “muffin top,” or “love handles.”

Why is Belly Fat is So Difficult to Get Rid Of?

There are many different reasons why fat likes to accumulate in the midsection, and those reasons are the same explanations for why it’s so difficult to get rid of. Let’s start by exploring why belly fat is so difficult to get rid of and then we’ll dive into what belly fat is, why it’s so dangerous and how to get rid of it for good. Because it is possible to have a trim and healthy waistline.

Age and Hormones

Two things happen as you age. The first is that your metabolism slows down. So this means that you automatically burn less fat and calories during a standard day. The trouble is that you’re still probably consuming the same number of calories. The extra calories are stored as fat.

The second reason that fat accumulates as you age has everything to do with your changing hormones. Both men and women begin to see a decline in their sex hormones. We’re talking about testosterone and estrogen in this case. The decreasing amount of these hormones changes where the body stores fat. In both men and women, more visceral fat is stored.

Another way that these hormones impact fat storage and weight gain is through sleep changes. In women particularly, the hormonal change affects sleep quality. Sleep has been directly linked to appetite hormones like leptin. It may feel like your body is working against you. Your hormone levels drop, making you store more fat and making you hungrier.

Stress and Belly Fat

Stress is one of the biggest causes of belly fat. Cortisol is a hormone that is released when a person is under stress. The body shifts all of its focus to help you survive a fight or flight situation – even if you’re not in any actual danger.

Your brain cannot tell the difference between stress from rush hour traffic frustrations and a bear chasing you. It reacts the same way, which is to essentially shut down digestion and shift energy to help your muscles. Your heart rate and breathing increase, and all your fuel is stored as fat.

Yep, cortisol tells your body to store your energy and calories as fat. It tends to store it right in your midsection.

Good Old Fashioned Genetics

You can take a look at your family members and know whether or not you’re prone to belly fat. It tends to be genetic. There are three basic body types; mesomorph, ectomorph, or endomorph.

Male endomorphs tend to store fat in their abdomens and often have the “beer belly” that has become common. Female endomorphs tend to be curvy and store their fat in their backsides and breasts. They’ll be described as pear shaped or have an hourglass figure.

Mesomorphs, if you’re curious, tend to be muscular and athletic, while ectomorphs tend to be tall and thin. Female mesomorphs may store fat in their abdomen and can be described as apple shaped. Of course there are many different combinations of these body types and there is evidence that specific genes determine how many fat cells you have, as well as where those fat cells are most abundant.

Your Diet

You’re probably not surprised to learn that what you eat has an impact on your body fat. In fact, diets that are high in sugar and starchy carbohydrates cause insulin resistance. When your body is becoming insulin resistant it stores fuel as fat rather than signaling your cells to uptake the calories for fuel.

You eat more because you’re tired and your cells need the fuel. Unfortunately, this cycle leads to fat accumulation in your abdomen and eventually it can lead to diabetes. This is one of the reasons it’s important to recognize fat accumulating on your stomach and to take steps to get rid of it.

Childbirth and Your Abdomen

Childbirth doesn’t make you gain belly fat. What it does do for women is change the look of your stomach. After having a baby a woman may find that her stomach has lost its muscular tone. The good news is that even after having many children, a woman can get her flat stomach back.

Abdominal fat isn’t fun, and it makes clothing difficult to find and uncomfortable to wear, but there’s more to belly fat than meets the eye. In fact, belly fat is the most dangerous type of fat. Let’s take a look at the research behind the dangers of belly fat and then we’ll move into a discussion about how to get rid of belly fat.

What to Do If You Blow Your Diet Plan and How to Get Back on Track

If you stay on your healthy eating plan long enough, it will happen to you – guaranteed! You’ll blow your diet plan.

The key is to not let that one event define you and to get right back on your healthy eating diet plan. It is like riding a bike; when you fell off of it the first time, what did you do? You got right back on and learn to ride! It is the same with a diet plan.

Most of the big holiday parties are past us now (for this year), but we still have birthday parties, anniversaries, weddings and vacations to endure during the rest of the year. To help you minimize the “damage” from overeating at one of these events, here are 6 ways to handle occasional overeating:

1) Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over Your Diet Plan

You can’t “undo” what happened, so why dwell on it. Instead, focus your energy again on eating right. A one-time overeating binge may affect your weight loss for that week, but it doesn’t blow your whole dieting plan. If you do gain weight, a good portion of it will be water weight from the additional salt. It will flush out of your system in a couple of days.

2) Think of the Bigger Picture

Many dieters see their diet plan as a daily thing when in fact researchers have found that we typically tend to eat more on the weekends. So if you overate on a weekday, count that as one of your weekend days when you usually eat more calories anyway. Just be sure to make one of your weekend days a regular weekday instead.

3) Eat a Healthy Breakfast on Your Diet Plan

I know, the last thing you want to do when you feel bad about overeating the day before is to eat again now. But eating within 30 minutes of getting out of bed sets the tone of your metabolism for the rest of the day. By eating a healthy breakfast you are burning calories right away.

4) Do An Extra Workout for a Mental Commitment to Your Diet Plan

Granted, one extra workout is not going to totally erase the extra calories you had yesterday; it will do more for your mental state than physical, but it helps you get back in the right frame of mind. A step aerobics class or a light strength training session burns off a few of those extra calories, but its real value is refocusing you toward your goal.

5) Go Back to Your Diet Plan

Get back on track. If you normally eat three light meals per day with a healthy snack in the morning and at night, continue that regimen. There is a common tendency to start skipping meals/snacks as a way to “compensate” for yesterday’s overeating. Don’t succumb to these feelings. What you were doing before was working, so stick to your eating and exercise plan.

One bad day is not life altering. Don’t make more out of it than it is – merely a hiccup in your overall plan.

6) Drink Plenty of Water on Your Diet Plan

Hydrating does a couple of things. First by drinking your 64 ounces of water throughout the day (optimally one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight), it keeps you full so you have less tendency to overeat again. Second, it helps flush fat and toxins from your system.

Drinking the right amounts of water each day is probably the single most important thing you can do for both weight-loss and your overall health. Read “How to Make Water a More Enticing Beverage” if you’re one of those people who have a hard time getting enough water into your diet plan on a daily basis.

All of us know water is an essential ingredient in our healthy lifestyle, but after a while drinking plain water gets boring. Eventually, you will start drinking less and not end up getting your daily eight 8-ounce glasses. So how do you make plain water more appealing and exciting?

Add Citrus Slices or Cucumber to Your Water

There are several things that are good for you by themselves that also make water better tasting. For example, try adding a slice of citrus fruit, such as lemon, lime or orange to a glass of water or several slices of one fruit to a pitcher of water. To add even more zest to your water, and kick up the visual appeal, crush a sprig or two of fresh rosemary and add it to the pitcher along with the citrus fruit.

For something a little different, try adding slices of cucumber to your pitcher. Not only does it add flavor to your water, but the green rind around the slice creates interesting visual appeal.

Green Tea

So far we have talked about how to make plain water more enjoyable to drink, but brewing it into green tea has certain medical benefits too. Due to the polyphenols in green tea, studies have shown it can help:

• relieve rheumatoid arthritis
• reduce high cholesterol
• prevent infection
• boost an impaired immune system

Hot or cold, green tea is good for you.

Mint Tea

Another tea many people enjoy is mint tea. Just boil some water and add fresh mint leaves. Mint has health benefits too numerous to list. Two of the more popular ones include soothing a stomach upset by stress and weight loss.

Mint tea contains theanine, a natural compound shown to have a calming effect. Green tea helps you lose weight too due to its diuretic effect. Drinking it helps get rid of extra fluid your body does not need and with it extra weight. Because mint tea has a small amount of caffeine, it can increase your endurance and help you work out longer in the gym, thus burning even more calories.

Try Some Fizzy Water

For some “fizzy” water, try drinking Seltzer water or Club Soda. Both come in natural and calorie-free fruit flavors, so you are not adding any additional calories to your healthy diet – just taste. Or you can make your own fizzy water with one of the new consumer soda machines. Add the bubbles, but not the favor mix. Sure, there’s a little controversy on the subject of drinking carbonated water but even more so on not drinking enough water. Try using the “fizzy water” as more of a treat rather than to drink it all of the time.

The old school of thought concentrated on drinking at least 64 ounces of just plain water per day and optimally one ounce for every two pounds of body weight. Now nutritionists mostly agree that some of your daily water requirement can come from other sources, such as coffee, tea, and certain fruits and vegetables. It all adds up and makes life more interesting!

Why Cardio Is Key to Belly Fat Loss

The reason why cardio is key to belly fat loss can be summed up in two words – calories burned. To lose a pound of weight in a week, you have to expend 3,500 more calories than you take in. To accomplish such a calorie deficit on a consistent basis, you have to exercise at a moderate to high-intensity level. Cardio routines typically have this intensity advantage over other forms of exercising.

Why Cardio Training for Belly Fat Loss?

While cardio training is key to blasting belly fat (and weight loss in general, along with healthy eating) don’t overlook the health benefits of weight and resistance training. Toned and defined muscles burn more calories, so by also improving your muscle definition, your body becomes better at burning fat when doing cardio training due to an increased metabolism. However, it is cardio that truly lights your “furnace”. It does no good to have a more efficient metabolism, if you are not going to use it.

And if you are a women, don’t worry about “bulking up” if you do strength training. You will get toned and defined without increasing your muscle mass significantly.

The After Burn for Continued Belly Fat Loss

Once reason cardio training is best is due to the “after burn”. When cardio training, you should strive to get your heart rate elevated to a target heart rate of around 80% of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age). By holding it in its elevated state throughout your cardio training session, you get an after effect where your body keeps burning calories at a higher rate once you stopped, then if you had not elevated it to begin with.

To get to your target heart rate, you have to do 20 to 40 minutes of moderate to high intensity training, like swimming, running, cycling or using an elliptical trainer.

The Rest of the Belly Fat Loss Story

While cardio is an important component of belly fat loss, an equal partner is eating healthy. All the cardio in the world is not going to get you closer to your goal if you also don’t eat right.

Cut out processed and fast foods from your diet. Not only do many of them contain saturated and trans fat, but they normally have high amounts of salt – the main cause of water retention and higher numbers on the scale. Instead, create your own dishes by concentrating on fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats.

Cardio is key to belly fat loss, however without strength training and a healthy diet, cardio alone will not get you to your goal of losing belly fat.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

If you recently had a baby, you may be asking yourself, “Why do I still look pregnant?” This is due to postpartum belly fat, an unwelcome reminder of your recent pregnancy and childbirth. Your stomach and the skin covering it was swollen considerably due to your pregnancy, and now your belly may look squishy and flabby, and still appear to be rather round.

It took an extended period of time for you to deliver your child, and it is going to take time to recover from your pregnancy. It’s alright, you will get there with the right attitude.

The Ups and Downs of Postpartum Belly Fat Loss

If you think of your abdomen as a balloon, one that slowly inflated as your baby was growing inside of you, then you will realize that childbirth is the beginning of a slow leak. Gradually you will have the ability of returning to your pre-pregnancy form, and there are some steps you can take to help speed up the loss of postpartum belly fat. Some new mothers, and many doctors support this claim, have stated that breast-feeding helps them to lose unwanted weight after pregnancy.

This could be because your uterus takes 6 to 8 weeks to return to its normal size after childbirth. Breast-feeding actually increases the speed with which your uterus returns to its original size, and this helps your tummy become smaller faster. Also, all the extra fat which your body stored to nourish your baby while he was growing inside of you starts to naturally burn off. You can accelerate this postpartum belly fat reduction through exercising, and there are multiple “new mom” fitness and workout courses available both online and from licensed physical trainers.

Reduce Postpartum Belly Fat with Exercise

Be patient, adopt a sensible physical fitness regimen, and remember that it took roughly nine months for your stomach to grow large enough so that it could accommodate a full term child. Other factors that play an important part in how quickly your postpartum belly fat disappears include your genes, your normal body size and how much weight you gained during your pregnancy. Want some good news? If you gained 30 pounds or less during your pregnancy, exercising, breast-feeding and proper nutrition can quickly slim you down.

Reduce Postpartum Belly Fat with Your Diet

One other thing you can do to guard against postpartum belly fat lingering is to realize that you need a lot fewer calories now that you are not pregnant. Especially if you are not breast-feeding, you will need to closely watch what you are eating, and how much.

Losing postpartum belly fat is a process which takes time, even if you are blessed with great genes and you practice proper nutrition. If you minimize your alcoholic intake, eat complex carbohydrates, whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, and perform whole-body exercises, you can accelerate your postpartum belly fat loss and positively impact your overall health.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Many slim people don’t know they may have excess belly or visceral fat. However it is true and these people can have the same increased risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes as an overweight person and not even know it.

Researchers have found 4 main reasons why slim people have excessive belly fat:

Lack of Exercise

If a person tries to stay slim by diet alone, s/he can still pack on pounds of fat deep within the abdominal cavity and not know it. As far as exercising, cardio routines are the best to get your heart rate up and your body into the fat-burning mode. Try to do cardio exercises 20 to 40 minutes per day for at least four days per week. Add in two days of strength training and take the 7th day off.

The Persons Age

As we age, our metabolism slows down, so we do not normally burn as many calories per day as when we were younger. In some people, the extra calories our body does not burn up get stored as belly fat. While aging is a continual process, you can help stave off its effects through proper diet and exercising.

Their Hormones

As we age, hormonal changes occur. Especially in postmenopausal women, fat may move from the hips to the abdominal cavity. So even though the scale has not shown any weight gain, fat may have moved to the belly region. There isn’t much that can be done to prevent it. Eat a healthy diet and get exercise as described above.

Their Genetics

Some people are predisposed to acquire fat in their belly region instead of on their hips or buttocks. Call it “bad genes” if you will. This can be disheartening as you are doing everything right but still gaining belly fat. Try to control it though exercise and avoiding sugary foods or food with trans fat. The body doesn’t know how to process trans fat, so it stores it as fat.

The odd fact about belly fat is that it does not show up on a Body Mass Index (BMI) reading. So even with a BMI of less than 25, dangerous belly fat could be lurking inside your body.

Unfortunately, belly fat is the most dangerous fat there is as it secretes hormones in the body that can create an increased risk for many life-threatening diseases. The only real way to tell if you have excess belly fat is through a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or a Computed Tomography (CT) test.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

here are two main types of fat: subcutaneous and visceral. The first type, subcutaneous, is found just under the skin. Visceral fat, also known as belly fat, is found behind the stomach muscles and in the abdominal cavity, and around many of our internal organs. Why you may think fat is fat, the two types are very different.

Belly Fat Increases Your Risk for Certain Diseases

This visceral fat does a couple of things biologically that can lead to a whole host of dangerous diseases. For example, excessive belly fat inhibits insulin to do its job, a condition called insulin resistance. So as your body becomes more insulin resistant, it has a harder time controlling your blood sugar. This can lead to diabetes.

Also, this visceral fat secretes hormones and proteins into your blood stream. When you have normal belly fat amounts, the hormones and protein are beneficial to your body, but as you gain belly fat, too much is secreted and that is when it can start to cause problems. The excess hormones contribute to atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque on the walls of your arteries, and eventually lead to clogging of the arteries; excess secreted proteins from belly fat cells constrict blood vessels causing high blood pressure known as hypertension.

Because visceral fat is located so close to the liver, fat cells enter that organ directly through the portal vein. Once inside, they can cause dementia, high LDL cholesterol, and breast and colon cancer.

Results of a Belly Fat Study

In a 14-year study that ended in 2012, 12,785 patients were broken down into three categories: normal, overweight and obese. What the study found is the group with a normal BMI, but with excessive visceral fat was 2.1 times more likely to die than the obese group that had a 1.4 greater risk of dying. The point is belly fat is extremely dangerous even if you carry a weight commensurate with your height.

How to Get Rid of Belly Fat

The good news is that even though people complain about it being the hardest last few pounds of fat to lose, this visceral fat is also one of the first fats to start going. Focus eating fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and the good fats – the unsaturated and Omegas. Do 20 to 40 minutes of cardio exercises four days per week with a couple of days of strength training.

If you take in fewer calories through proper eating and start burning more calories through exercising, the calorie deficit will start to burn off excessive belly fat.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Have too many years of too many beers transformed your flat and ripped six-pack abs into a fat, round keg? What really causes a beer belly, and how can you lose it? It is true that beer drinkers around the world, especially men, tend to grow what is commonly called a “beer belly” if they drink beer frequently enough and long enough.

But is it really the beer that causes the beach ball stomach? You may know someone who has never had a beer or alcoholic beverage in their life, but is still sporting what is usually called a beer belly. How does this happen in a teetotaler?

And more to the point, how do some serious beer drinkers seem to avoid getting this profound paunch?

The Beer Belly Blame Game

As it turns out, too many calories and a sedentary lifestyle can turn your formerly flat and sexy stomach into a beer belly. It can happen with men and women, regardless the amount of beers you actually consume in your lifetime.

In today’s society, food rich in preservatives, saturated fats and other nutritional bad guys are the norm. This leads to fat which generally collects in the midsection, and if you take in more calories than you burn and get little exercise, you too may be sporting a lot of unhealthy belly fat.

Yes, You Can Blame Beer for Giving You a Beer Belly

The reason why beer and alcohol intake is associated with a bigger waistline is because your liver goes to work burning the poison alcohol in your body when you drink, instead of attacking fat. And with a standard beer sporting 150 to 180 calories, five or six in an evening can single-handedly net you half of the calories you should be taking in for an entire day.

So heavy beer consumption can definitely cause a beer belly, but it is certainly not the only culprit. Doctor Michael Jensen is an obesity researcher for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and he says that sugary beverages and over-sized meal portions should get just as much blame for creating beer bellies.

Compound the Beer Belly Problems with the Need to Eat

Of course, since alcohol consumption increases your appetite, you many times have something to eat while you are drinking. And the food offered at many pubs and bars is not the healthiest. Pizza, chicken wings and fattening fried foods often accompany beer drinking, and they are just as responsible for your overhanging belly as are the beers you are washing them down with.

As you age, hormonal and metabolism changes make it harder to burn fat, so the same poor diet your body easily shrugged off when you were young can quickly become the basis for a beer belly now that you are older.

Does above average and consistent alcohol and beer consumption cause a beer belly?

It certainly can, if your overall nutrition and exercise do not compensate for all those extra calories. Because men have less subcutaneous fat than women, they store most of their fat in the midsection. This tends to make the classic beer belly more prevalent among males than females, but women who take in more calories than they burn can also develop this classic beer drinker’s belly.

From type II Diabetes to high blood pressure and multiple heart problems, too much belly fat surrounding your vital organs can be dangerous, and sometimes deadly. Take up a weekly exercise regimen, practice smart nutrition habits, and a few adult beverages after work and on the weekends will have a much smaller chance of cursing you with a beer belly.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Let’s be honest, losing belly fat (also known as visceral fat) is hard to do, but not impossible. But if it’s so difficult, why would anyone even try to get rid of it?

Because having an excess amount of visceral fat – the type of fat found deep in the abdominal cavity – is unhealthy and can lead to a whole host of diseases – many of which can be life-threatening. If you are a women with a waist measurement in excess of 35 inches, or 40 inches for men, you have an increased risk of getting heart disease, a stroke, sleep apnea, bone density loss, insulin resistance (leading to Type 2 diabetes) and some types of cancer.

How to Lose Belly Fat

So what are the secrets to losing belly fat?

Exercise and eating healthy foods.

Lose Belly Fat Through Exercise

There are many products and methods that tout themselves as being the Holy Grail when it comes to losing belly fat, but the fact of the matter is none of them work. Instead put that money into a gym membership. The only way to lose belly fat is to burn more calories than you eat.

Fortunately when you start to lose fat, belly fat is one of the first to go. But to set the record straight, but there isn’t a program that specifically targets belly fat – the body just doesn’t work that way.

Do high intensity cardio-style workouts four times per week. Add in a couple days of strength training per week (with one day off) and you have half of a recipe for losing belly fat and body fat in general. The other half is healthy food choices.

Lose Belly Fat Through Healthy Food Choices

You can only burn off so many calories per week working out. If you make bad food choices, both in the type and amount you eat, you will not create a calorie deficit and lose belly fat.

One tactic in portion control is eating on a smaller plate. This works by tricking the brain into thinking you ate more than you really did. So when it sees your plate empty, it thinks you are full.

The food you eat should be healthy. Focus on eating foods low in saturated fat and calories, but high in protein and fiber, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats. These foods keep you fuller longer without adding in a ton of calories.

Avoid sugar. At first it gives you a lot of energy, but your body quickly metabolizes it by dumping insulin (usually too much) in your bloodstream. Once the sugar is gone, you “crash” from low blood sugar. So what do you do? Eat more sugar. This yo-yo effect eventually causes insulin resistance leading to Type 2 diabetes.

So as unglamorous as it is, it comes down to a combination of exercise and healthy food choices as the way to belly fat loss. Eating healthy food prevents you from consuming empty calories that have no nutritional value and exercising burns off calories. If you burn off more calories than you take in, you’ll lose belly fat. It really is that simple, but not easy.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.