Exercise – Improve Your Workouts With A Stability Ball!

You’ve seen those big, inflatable stability balls before – either at the gym, or maybe someone’s kids were playing with one. Well, although kids might find them fun to play with, stability balls are actually a very effective exercise tool! You might be thinking that “Exercise on a ball – seriously?”. Yup – stability ball training is “serious” – seriously effective, and seriously fun! It’s amazing the ways you can challenge your body in ways you never thought on an inflatable piece of rubber!

You might be a bit skeptical, especially when bombarded with infomercials for “the newest equipment and programs”. But, unlike the “newest” fad, stability balls actually got their start with physical therapists and orthopedic specialist looking for tools to help rehabilitation – back in the 1900’s! Besides being a great tool for treatment and rehabilitation of injuries, they are also used to help prevent more serious physical problems prior to their occurance.

Stability balls are large, heavy-duty, inflatable balls that are generally rated to hold up to 600 or 700 pounds. And, they are comfortable and supportive, since they conform to your unique anatomy due to being air-filled. Using the ball makes it easy to get into and out of different exercise positions because it gets you off of the floor. Stability balls offer you a fun, safe and highly effective way to exercise.

The ball is a great way to improve muscle strength and endurance in all of the major muscle groups. Training with the ball improves muscle tone, increase muscle endurance and strength, restore or improve flexibility, enhance spinal stability, complement your resistance and aerobic training programs, help you lose weight, and lastly, improve your balance, posture and coordination.

Maintaining proper alignment on the ball stimulates your body's natural motor reflexes and encourages the body to react as a whole, integrated unit. Movement like this is similar to how you move about in a normal day - and training on the ball challenges the whole body to maintain correct posture and balance, and to perform dynamic exercise movement. When using the ball correctly, your body uses not only your major muscle groups, but also utilizes various “stabilizer muscles” that may not have been previously challenged using traditional exercise equipment. Not only does this help you increase overall muscle strength, but those “stabilizer muscles” help you keep your body in proper position during your other workouts, helping you to avoid injury.

As you work out on the ball you will find that it is especially effective in targeting your abdominal and lower back muscles. The ball is especially well-suited to improving ab and lower-back strength, as well as to bettering functional strength, flexibility and balance. Even while training other muscle groups, the ab and back musculature is simultaneously working to balance and stabilize the body. Strong postural muscles and proper posture are important for relieving and preventing low-back pain.

The ball is ideal for stretching and offers additional options to traditional static stretching. Traditional stretching usually requires you to stretch on the floor and it can be difficult to move into and out of stretching positions.

The brilliance and simplicity of the stability ball is rolled into one word--balance! Because the ball demands balance, you'll work muscles you never knew you had or challenge them in different ways. The challenge of maintaining perfect posture, on a round and mobile surface--is exhilarating, fun and incredibly effective in building functional strength, and challenging your ab and back muscles like never before! So, add a stabilizer ball to your next workout – and have a ball!

Healthy Lifestyle – Seven Tips for Healthy Dieting

Every diet that comes along promises “quick weight loss” or “loose fat now”. And, no matter which diet you choose – in the short term, many of these diets can be successful at fulfilling their promises. But, maintaining healthy eating habits in our society is a life long challenge, not a three-month program. Its a challenge in which the payoffs are well worth the effort.

So, once you’ve started your diet and exercise program, how can you make sure that in the long run, you keep your weight down to where you want it? Well, here’s some simple tips to help you accomplish this!

1. Get organized. Plan snacks ahead so when the urge to eat hits you there is something "good and easy" to reach for.

- Peel carrots, cut celery or cucumbers ahead of time so they are handy.
- Place no more than 10 (50 calories) pretzels in a baggie for a snack.
- Drink water, ice tea, V-8 when you feel like snacking. Tell yourself if you're still hungry
when you finish the drink that you'll have a snack.
- When the urge to snack hits you, go out and walk around the house five times.

2. Get rid of all (or most) junk food in the house or ask a family member to hide it.

3. Don't let yourself use the old excuse at the grocery store, "The cookies are for the kids. They're not on a diet." Remember if they end up in the house, they will probably end up in your mouth.

4. If you blow it at lunch, don't write off the rest of the day.

5. Try to plan your meals at least one day ahead. The more decisions you leave to the last minute, the more chance you have of grabbing something quick and fat.

6. If you find yourself becoming very hungry mid-afternoon, or in the evening, eat a bit more nutritious food at mealtime, or anticipate the in-between-meal hunger and plan a nutritious snack.

7. Don't be too hard on yourself. Occasionally, feel free to reward your hard efforts with a treat once in awhile - one treat here or there won't be the end of you. Just be reasonable!

Diet – Top 10 Nutrition Myths

by Bob Lachniet
President - Fitness 4 Home Superstore

1. Avoid carbohydrate to lose weight When you start a low carb diet, You’ll begin to burn stored carbohydrates (glycogen) for energy. When your body starts burning glycogen, water is released. So, the initial drop of weight at the beginning is mostly the water that you lose as a result of burning glycogen. What makes low-carb diets work are that they are also designed as low-calorie. It makes more sense to eat a balanced diet with lower calories, than to starve your body of the energy and nutrients it needs!

2. Nuts are fattening Nuts are quite calorically dense; 15 cashews, for instance, deliver 180 kilocalories! On top of that, it is very tough not to overeat these tasty snacks. But, nuts are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (the good fats) as well as plant sterols which have all been shown to lower LDL cholesterol.

3. Sugar Causes Diabetes The most common nutrition myth is probably the misconception that sugar causes diabetes. If you don’t have diabetes, sugar intake will not cause diabetes. So far, a diet high in calories, being overweight and an inactive lifestyle are the main risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

4. All Fats are bad Fats help nutrient absorption, nerve transmission and maintain cell membrane integrity just to name a few functions. The key is to replace bad fats (saturated fats and trans fats) with good fats (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats) in our diet.

5. Brown Sugar is better than White Sugar The brown sugar sold at the stores is actually white granulated sugar with added molasses!

6. Brown Eggs are more nutritious than White Eggs The eggshell color only depends upon the breed of the hen. There is no difference in taste or nutrition content between white and brown colored eggs.

7. Avoid seafood to lower blood cholesterol The cholesterol found in seafood and other meats has little effect on blood cholesterol in most people. Saturated fats found in meat products and packaged foods, and trans fatty acids foun in packaged snack foods, deep-fried foods or firm margarine are the most important factors that raise blood cholesterol, not dietary cholesterol.

8. Eating for 2 is necessary during pregnancy An extra snack before bedtime consisting of a fruit, a serving of milk or yogurt and a few biscuits is often enough. In addition, a daily prenatal multivitamin supplement is often recommended during pregnancy.

9. Skipping meals can help lose weight If we skip a meal, our body will think that we are in starvation mode and therefore slow down the metabolism to compensate. We then tend to overeat at the next meal. A better approach is to eat smaller frequent healthy meals and snacks to keep our blood sugar balanced.

10. Red meat is bad for health Even chicken can contain as much saturated fat as lean cuts of beef or pork. Instead of excluding red meats, choose leaner cuts of beef and pork. For beef, choose eye of round, top round roast, top sirloin and flank; for pork, choose tenderloin and loin chops.