Dr. Mercola Interviews Pete Evans About Eating Healthy Foods

Scientific Weight Loss Tips

How Alternate-Day Fasting Can Help You Achieve Your Weight Loss Goals

10 Secrets About Your Metabolism

Dr. Mercola Interviews Dr. Perlmutter

Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight

Weight loss is tricky business. Obviously what you eat has a huge impact on your health and body weight. But anyone who has ever tried to modify their diet for the sake of losing weight knows it isn’t so simple.

Most of us understand intuitively that broccoli is healthier than cookies. We can talk about sugar, fat, gluten and antioxidants all day, but that doesn’t change the fact that cookies taste good and you still want to eat them. Any weight loss plan that simply tells you what to eat and neglects why you make the choices you make is unlikely to help you in the long run.

Nutrition knowledge is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The real secret is understanding your behaviors and motivations at their roots, and using this information to have a meaningful impact on your health. In this sense, good health starts in your brain, not on your plate.

The first thing you need to understand is that we don’t have as much control over our food decisions as most of us assume. We tend to believe that we can call on willpower anytime we wish and use it to order a salad instead of a burger, and if we fail to do so it is our own fault. However, self-control is not something we can simply turn on or off, and as a result the process of decision making––particularly when it comes to food––is much more complex.

Approximately 20 percent of the calories we expend daily are used by our brains. Because brain activity is so costly, things like self-control and decision making cannot be relied on indefinitely. As a result, willpower is a limited resource.

Like a muscle, willpower becomes fatigued when exercised too frequently. All the decisions you make throughout the day deplete your willpower, and when you start running out of steam your ability to choose healthy food over more convenient food rapidly diminishes.

Ironically, increasing your blood sugar can help restore willpower to some extent. But finding a healthy way to raise blood sugar in a state of depleted willpower can pose quite the dilemma. Tired brains find it much easier to just grab a cookie.

The way our brains cope with the willpower conundrum is to automate as much of our decision making as possible. It does this by creating habits. Habits are specific behaviors that occur in response to a trigger or cue. They are also always associated with some kind of reward, which in turn reinforces and strengthens the trigger.

For example, a buzz in your pocket is a cue to reach down, grab your phone, pull it out and glance at the screen. The information you see causes a bit of dopamine to be released in the reward center of your brain. We humans love novelty, which is why most of us have a reflexive response to checking our mobile devices when we receive a notification. This is how habits are born.

Once established, habits occur automatically without expending any willpower or mental effort. Scientists have estimated that up to 90 percent of our daily food decisions occur as a result of habits. This saves our brain energy for more difficult decisions where habits cannot be used.

How can this knowledge help us lose weight?

For one thing, it shows that willpower is not particularly reliable as a means to achieve lasting weight loss, and we’re better off spending our efforts creating healthy habits.

It also teaches us that any habit we wish to develop needs to impart a meaningful reward in order for it to stick. You can probably guess that some vague promise of future thinness is not sufficient––the reward for any habit needs to be immediate and tangible.

This means that in order to achieve long-term weight control you need to find healthy foods you actually enjoy eating, physical activities you like doing, and spend your time making these as convenient and accessible as possible.

Fabulous news, right?

Using willpower for restrictive dieting is difficult and incredibly unpleasant. We can all let out a collective sigh of relief that it doesn’t actually work. To achieve true success in health and weight loss, we’re better off quitting diets altogether and focusing on building healthy habits we enjoy.

Try starting with something as simple as breakfast. Warm muesli with a splash of almond milk and cinnamon only takes two minutes to prepare and is absolutely delicious. Invest in a pedometer and challenge yourself to reach 10,000 steps a day. Setting and achieving an attainable goal is a very powerful reward, and is one of the reasons so many people love videogames.

Since our brains are easily overwhelmed, don’t try to develop too many habits at once. Work on just two or three habits at a time, and build from there. Habits take anywhere from two weeks to six months to take root, but on average about two months. Start with the easiest ones and work your way up. Once you’ve built enough good habits, your health will take care of itself.

To learn how to stop dieting, build healthy habits, and make life awesome check out my new book Foodist.

Originally published May 6, 2013.

Source: http://summertomato.com/use-your-brain-to-lose-weight/

Shivering to lose weight? Don’t try it

Ismat Tahseen, TNN Feb 16, 2014, 12.00AM IST

After the Naked Lunch Diet and nose clipping, this is being touted as the latest fat-busting regimen...

Have you always hated the gym? Too lazy to go for a run? Then, this might be interesting for you. A new research says, if you simply shiver enough, you might lose the flab. According to the study, shivering mimics the effect of exercise, that is, it releases the same hormone, Irisin, that muscles produce during rigorous exercise. So, rather than getting all sweaty at a gym class, you receive the same calorie-burning effect from just feeling cold. This converts the white fat (fat on thighs, hip and belly) to brown fat (fat that generates heat and burns calories when stimulated). Interested already? Read on...

What the study showed

In the study, 10 healthy adults exercised in a 65°F room. They later lay down on a bed as the temperature plummeted to 53°F (12°C), which induced shivers in them. It was found in both premises their muscles contracted, producing a hormone called Irisin that boosts body heat and creates brown fat cells (colour comes from high iron content) out of white ones. It realised that shivering, instead of exercise, could be the primary driver of Irisin secretion.

'Too soon to call it a cure'

While it's creating a buzz, obesity surgeon Dr Jaydeep Palep says it's too early to call it any kind of cure. "Look, if I say taking irisin as a pill is going to have more circulating levels in the blood, still the role of brown of fat is not clear. Brown fat might be there in a finite quantity, but this does not allow all the white fat to be converted. There is always going to be a majority percentage of white fat — that is how the adult body fat is. So, it's early days to see how the brown fat burns calories. It might just be the wonder answer, but it's still too early to say so."

Agrees bariatric surgeon Dr Ramen Goel. "I would not advise this artificial shivering to lose weight. Brown fat is present in babies and goes off gradually. In adults it's present in neck and back areas. Using this as an idea to induce calorie burn is still to be researched," he says.

Other bizarre weight-loss fundas

Drinking oil: Yes, you heard right! As per Seth Roberts, a PhD in psychology who advocates 'flavourless calories', drinking up to 3 tablespoons of sugar water and one or two tablespoons of extra-light (not virgin) olive oil twice between meals can curb appetite.

Theory: It works on the flavour-calorie relationship, where tucking into various flavourful foods actually stimulates the brain toward more hunger.

Nose clipping: An online community of diet followers have tried this weird fad, where you wear a nose clip or pinch your nose to suppress flavours while eating food. Folks like it because it's painless, it doesn't take away your favourite foods or place restrictions on your dinner.

Theory: Smell influences taste, if you are attracted to certain aromas you eat more, resulting in greater calorie increase.

Plastic tongue patch: Created by a surgeon in Beverly Hills, this is about sewing a patch onto the tongue (not approved by FDA), actually stops you from having anything but liquids.

Theory: The patch and its sutures make eating solid food doubly painful so wearers are forced to stick to just liquids. Regarded as both dangerous and unhealthy.

Naked Lunch Diet: This one is as high as it gets on the weird scale. Apparently eating in the buff helps you control what you eat and a good honest look at yourself puts a restriction on your diet.

Theory: Eating this way makes you so self-conscious, even repulsed by your own flab, that you stop having those huge mouthfuls of food

More:

5 Steps to a flat tummy in 7 days

20 ways to gain weight fast

7 Day flat belly diet plan

Source:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-02-16/diet/47379221_1_brown-fat-white-fat-burns-calories

There Are Five Key Reasons People Fail at Losing Weight

Why do so many people fail at losing weight? Laziness? Food addictions? Hereditary? While all of these things may be contributors, failure is often because of these factors:

1) People don’t truly understand the major health risks of being overweight. Why do most want to lose weight? Most would say to look better. Looking better certainly is a benefit of losing weight, but this shouldn’t be the sole reason to lose weight. There is a 1000 pound gorilla in the room and it’s often ignored. Obesity kills millions of people each year. Thousands of studies have shown and prove without any doubt that losing body fat will improve and lengthen your life. Knowing the dangers of being overweight is a tremendous motivator to lose weight and keep it off.

2) People don’t commit to permanent lifestyle changes. So many people think of a “diet” as something temporary. Often people on ”diets” restrict themselves excessively and create a miserable situation. Sooner or later failure is inevitable because of the unreasonable demands of most “diets.” Some diets have very strict guidelines such as only eating certain foods, eliminating all carbs, etc. The key to losing weight long term is to make gradual lifestyle changes you can stick to forever.

3) Most individuals are not provided the truthful facts of losing weight and becoming healthier. With the conflicting information in the media, and all of the different lose weight quick fad diets, it’s understandable why so many people really don’t know the truth about losing fat and keeping it off long term.

4) Our own warped thought process often ruins our efforts to lose weight. For example, some people justify binging or giving up because they hit a small road-block. This isn’t an all or nothing game. For example, when I was overweight, if I ate an unhealthy lunch, I’d go ahead and eat an unhealthy dinner and snack all night since I already “messed up” the day. Or I’d say, I’ll start eating healthy on Monday since I’ve already eaten poorly this weekend.” Every person at times eats too much. Successful people will not let a road bump completely derail their entire lifestyle change. If you are not implementing positive lifestyle changes and losing weight, you are gaining weight. Again, there is no “in-between.”

5) Most people don’t realize how many calories they are eating and burning each day. So many overweight people eat thousands of extra calories without realizing it. It’s tough to know if you are gaining weight or losing weight each day unless you are keeping an eye on what you’re consuming. It’s vital to write down what you consume on a daily basis. Then cross reference the calories you’re eating with the calories you burn. Use the calculators on freeweightloss.com to help you determine calories burned.

Source: freeweightloss.com

Weight Loss: Discover A Holistic Weight-loss Program That Works

How many weight-loss programs have you tried over the years? How many of these weight-loss programs have taken a holistic approach? Holistic Weight loss is the only way we can insure that we will lose weight and keep it off. A holistic weight-loss program focuses on the “whole” person. If a weight-loss program does not focus on restoring your health, fitness, power, and resolution, it is a temporary fix to what can become or is a lifelong problem.

Holistic weight-loss is essential. Weight-loss programs that do not consider the “whole” person are destructive for several reasons:

Many people who are overweight, obese, or morbidly obese have underlining issues related to the health of the “whole” person. These underlining issues may include stress, low self-esteem, a poor self-concept, food addictions, emotional eating… all that must be addressed during the weight-loss process.

Many people who are overweight, obese, or morbidly obese develop a distorted body image even after they have lost weight.

Many people view a “diet” as a temporary and quick way to lose weight and do not understand the importance of nutrition. People who join many “diet” programs with pre-packaged foods or special supplements to suppress the appetite are suffering from malnutrition.

Because such programs cause malnutrition, many people can not “keep up” the “diet” for the rest of their lives and eventually gain all the weight back and more. When a person becomes overweight, they feel a loss of power, resolution, and control, it is important to restore these elements to rebuild a sense of “self” and empowerment.

Usually, when a person is on a “diet” or weight-loss program, s/he is planning in their minds all the things they will “eat” after they lose the weight. This is why a holistic weight-loss program is so important. If one does not understand how nutrition works, s/he will never truly commit to a weight-loss program. We have dealt with some “big fat lies” related to weight loss and now it is time to address the truth. The truth is:

Truth: You can’t eat whatever you want not even in moderation and lose weight.

The reason you can’t is because you cannot rely on your “willpower” when you haven’t yet been empowered. Some foods are addictive and were designed to be addictive. Most of what we eat when we gain weight is not nutritious. You need vital nutrients to lose weight and look good while you are doing it.

Truth: Anyone can lose weight regardless of their genetic background.

Anyone can lose weight. It does not matter how “slow” your metabolism may be. By choosing a holistic weight-loss program you can restore your body’s metabolism. The body is designed to metabolize “whole” and natural foods. It is all the additives and process foods our body cannot recognize.

Truth: You have to exercise.

Exercise is a part of fitness. Exercise works to reduce body fat and body size.
Exercise restores our energy levels and helps us to produce lean muscle. Lean muscle helps us the burn more calories and more fat.

Truth: You must get educated about weight loss.

If losing weight has been a battle for you, you need to learn as much as possible about holistic health, nutrition, and how the body works. Knowledge is power. Once we have the knowledge, we know exactly how to develop our own holistic weight loss program.

By developing our own holistic weight-loss program, we know why we are doing what we are doing. We have a plan that works for us. We have a plan based on knowledge. We have plan we can commit to for our entire lives.

Source: articlesfactory.com

REVIEW OF GREAT TASTE NO PAIN

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Quick Description
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With more than 1 out of 3 adults in the US (70 million) taking OTC or prescription pills for digestive disorders and the pain associated with them, as a nation, we have serious health problems. And we're spreading our problems around the world.

What most people are frustrated with is that even if they eat how most health professionals consider to be healthy, a large percentage of people STILL experience digestive problems. And so most people resort to drugs, surgery or eating bland foods. Or they just continue to suffer.

That's why the Great Taste No Pain System was developed -- to help slash some of the $42 billion dollars spent on those pills in the US alone.

This simple eating system is designed to dramatically reduce the acid pH measure in a person's entire body -- not just in the stomach. It does so by increasing the ratio of alkaline forming foods eaten and by showing you how to combine foods in a way that radically decreases the amount of acid digestive juices in the stomach and small intestines required to break down foods. With me so far? Hope so, because this is important stuff.

One of the primary components of the Great Taste No Pain System is the science of food combining, which was first introduced into the US in 1911 by Dr. William Hay, a New York surgeon who used it to cure his Bright's Disease, a kidney disease which was often fatal at that time. In fact, among the many thousands of lives it claimed was Teddy Roosevelt's first wife, who died of Bright's Disease at just 22 years of age.

A basic knowledge of Junior High chemistry is all it takes to see the logic behind this science: Mixing foods that require alkaline digestive enzymes with foods that require acid digestive enzymes slows and can even stop the digestive process. It can and does delay digestion by as much as 10 hours and more. This is incredibly bad for the body. The Great Taste No Pain system alleviates this problem, speeding food through your body, allowing it to absorb nutrients from foods at a much higher level.

In addition, one of the manuals in the Great Taste No Pain system, 'Foods That Create Acid, Foods That Take It Away,' is as clear as I've ever seen this data presented. Follow this simple guide and your body will use a minimum of energy in the digestion process, which leaves more energy for healing and other daily functions your body carries out.

This is a timely set of guides, because with our society's addiction to the convenience of processed foods, in many respects our health challenges are far worse than they were in 1911.

Great Taste No Pain author, Sherry Brescia, was a former Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) sufferer herself. In fact, in 1991, she spent 7 days in the hospital with bacterial colitis.

As a health insurance researcher and Chief Underwriter, she was able to research the benefits of an alkaline- balanced body and over the next 15 years perfected the system she now calls Great Taste No Pain.

She meshed a number of philosophies proven to help alkalize the body to create this simple system that anyone can follow regardless of where they are or what food choices they have available to them.

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What I Like:
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Taste: Unlike most restrictive diets, Great Taste No Pain cannot actually be called a diet, because it allows you to eat even great volumes of luscious, delicious food as long as you combine it according to a few simple guidelines. It truly requires very little willpower. Perhaps the greatest news for people who love to eat is that the 176 page recipe book in the system is stuffed with breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks that are unbelievably tasty. No rabbit food. Gourmet all the way, yet the meals (if you like to cook) only take between 15 and 30 minutes of prep time and make tons of yummy leftovers. So you can throw away the belief that you can't eat healthy on a super-busy schedule.

Speed: I love that you don't have to read 300+ pages before learning what to do. In the first guide, 'How To End Stomach Pain Forever, Even If Your MD says, "No Way,"' it provides a brief background on the science and then quickly moves onto the step-by-step 'how to.' I really love that.

Simplicity: The second Guide in the GTNP System is 'What To Eat With What.' This is a massive compilation. Every kind of food that you could possibly put in your mouth is listed, along with the corresponding foods that combine with it for easy comfortable digestion, and those foods that don't. This guide is so complete and so easy to follow, if you screw this up, it's back to pre-school for you.

More Simplicity: Traveling is the one thing that can ruin even the healthiest eaters. But in Great Taste No Pain, Sherry gives you a 'Pocket Guide For Pain-Free Dining Out.' This tool is phenomenal. You can store this little baby with your credit cards and, until you understand what combines with what, all you have to do is pull out your pocket guide and quickly note the rule, so you can eat and
enjoy the rest of your day, pain-free.

Would you believe that you could eat McDonald's food and not suffer gassiness and reflux? Now you can!

Meat: While meat is not something people with digestive issues usually tolerate well on a daily basis (hence the daily pain), the problem isn't so much the meat as it is what you eat with the meat.

That is why each of the Guides in the system, including the recipe book, lists every possible food you can combine with meats without suffering. Most people will suddenly be able to eat beef, chicken, fish, pork, turkey, venison and any other type of meat they want. As long as you combine it right... no pain at all! And broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers and other veggies that can create havoc suddenly will not. That I love.

Fruit: Ask anyone that suffers stomach problems about fruit and you'll hear horror stories. So sadly, the most perfect food on the planet is shunned by a huge part of our world's population. No longer. Because you will soon learn why fruit causes you trouble and how to easily change that. You CAN eat fruit again, even if it now makes you turn blue! It's true!

While each Guide in the system is detailed and complete, they are "dumbed down" in the clearest language possible. So I don't doubt Sherry's claim that any 11 year old could teach it. This I really love.

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Things To Watch For:
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The one thing you want to be careful of is that once you start eating as prescribed in Great Taste No Pain, you could quickly begin to feel all powerful. You might start to think you are "cured" of your digestive problems since they went away so fast and since you have so much extra energy.

That would be a mistake.

Because technically there is no "cure" for most digestive problem, because technically they are not diseases at all. They are maladies brought on by eating the wrong foods and by eating them in the wrong combinations. So the principles in Great Taste No Pain is not a "cure," since people with sensitive stomachs will always be sensitive. GTNP is merely a way to make all symptoms go away forever and give you a lot more energy.

For example, let's say you've got it bad and have Diverticulitis or Crohn's. Great Taste No Pain can help you get rid of your symptoms very quickly.

But a year later, if you start eating like you used to, guess what? Yep, the symptoms will come back. You see, the principles that Great Taste No Pain is based on are sound. They work for everyone. But if you think that because you've been symptom-free for a long time, you've been "cured," think again. Go against these principles of easy digestion, and the problem can come back with a vengeance. Remember, good health comes from living a healthy lifestyle, not a"do it once and you're fixed" approach.

Another thing you might want to be prepared for is that since Great Taste No Pain cleanses your digestive tract, initially you could get a little diarrhea. If you experience constipation on a fairly regular basis, you might get a little "looseness" at first, but it will end soon.

Also, due to the detoxing going on, you might get a runny nose or get some other cold-like symptoms at first. It's nothing to worry about. If you do, while it might not be fun, it does mean it's working. It means your body is becoming purer and the toxins are leaving. And that is a very good thing.

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Conclusion:
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When I began following the system, I personally was amazed at the amount of energy I had, even late into the evening. I had no discomfort, no bloating, I didn't feel the need to eat again within an hour and no need for caffeine after meals.

Professionally and personally, my strong recommendation is that for anyone who wants more energy, sounder and longer sleep, migraine headaches to stop almost immediately, pain from gastritis and acid reflux to stop almost instantly, and the pain of digestive problems to stop or be reduced dramatically, get over to:
- http://www.greattastenopain.com/cmdt.asp?id=1549007&t=374931

now and get the whole system. You will be thrilled.

And frankly, it won't take a full day for most people to feel a major difference in their bodies. Often it just takes one meal. After you have been following it for a week or more, feel free to let me know how you like it. I personally believe that anyone who adopts this simple, enjoyable food combining method will reap gigantic health benefits. So if that is what you are looking for, get over
to - http://www.greattastenopain.com/cmdt.asp?id=1549007&t=374931
and get started today.

All my best,

Chris

Intermittent fasting is January's hottest weight-loss trend

Intermittent fasting, or IF, is being hailed as the hottest weight-loss trend of January, the NY Daily News reported Jan. 6.

The trend was fueled by the runaway success of The Fast Diet (or 5:2 diet), in which dieters fast two days of the week and eat whatever they want the other five days. Typically dieters eat 500 calories (600 for men) on their "fasting" days and follow their normal diets the other days.

Studies showed that people who followed the 5:2 diet experienced rapid weight loss without deprivation. What's more, research suggests that intermittent fasting protects brain health, helps maintain lean muscle mass, and boosts the release of anti-aging hormones.

Now, another diet, The Every-Other-Day Diet (or 4:3 diet), is being touted for its ability to produce fast weight loss and improve insulin sensitivity. On the 4:3 plan, dieters fast for four days and then take the remaining three days off. The author, Dr. Krista Varady, said she easily shed 41 pounds on the plan while still enjoying all her favorite foods.

Nutrition experts said a major advantage of intermittent fasting is that it's easier to maintain than a linear diet where you're constantly depriving yourself.

"We think that once the people get adjusted to the diet, it is easy to adhere to," said Dr. Mattson, chief of the neurosciences lab at the National Institute on Aging. "If you know that tomorrow you can eat normally, you can make it through today."

Previous research has indicated that intermittent fasting melts body fat and promotes the release of anti-aging hormones. Actor Hugh Jackman followed a 16/8 intermittent fasting plan to achieve his rippling Wolverine body.

Suggested by the author

Intermittent fasting spurs rapid weight loss and protects brain, says study

Hugh Jackman details 16/8 intermittent fasting and 6,000-calorie-a-day diet

Man loses 37 pounds in 3 months on all-McDonald's diet: 'Obesity is a choice'

Dr. Oz: Low-carb ketogenic diet prevents Alzheimer's, causes rapid weight loss

Dr. Oz reveals two-week rapid weight-loss diet: Lose 9 pounds in 14 days

http://www.examiner.com/article/intermittent-fasting-diet-is-january-s-hottest-weight-loss-trend

Sandra Aamodt: Why dieting doesn't usually work

An apple a day keeps your heart healthy | GulfNews.com

An apple a day keeps your heart healthy | GulfNews.com

How to Build a Core of Steel

By Christian Finn

You’ve read a lot about how important it is to have a strong core.

But you’ve come across plenty of different opinions about the best way to get one.

Some say that squats and deadlifts build all the core strength you’ll ever need.

Others will tell you that the best way to strengthen your core is to spend time on a Swiss ball, BOSU ball or other “unstable” surface.

The term “core” causes a lot of confusion, mainly because everyone seems to have a different opinion about what it is.

For most people, the core is just another name for the abdominals. But the term actually refers to a much larger collection of muscles that stabilize the spine. These muscles work together to keep the spine as close to neutral – its naturally curved state – as possible.

Neutral spine isn’t a single position that your spine never moves from. Think of it as a neutral zone, or a range that your spine can move within while remaining relatively healthy. A lack of spinal stability can lead to movement outside of this zone, which in turn increases the risk of pain and/or tissue damage.

“When we talk about stability, what we really mean is that we want the lower back – the lumbar spine – to move as little as possible when it faces a challenge,” explains Lou Schuler in The New Rules of Lifting for Abs. “This small range of movement is called the neutral zone. The smaller and tighter it is, the more stability you have.”

When muscles contract, they create stiffness. Not only does muscular stiffness stabilize the spine and reduce the risk of tissue damage, it’s also a requirement as far as optimal athletic performance is concerned.

In the video below, Professor Stuart McGill, an expert in spine function at the University of Waterloo in Canada, explains why a “stiff” core is so important in sports that rely on strength, speed and power.

When the core is mentioned in this context (i.e. as a way of transmitting power) it usually refers to the muscles of the trunk and hips — basically, anything that isn’t the head, arms or legs.

It’s a lot more than just the abdominals and lower back, and extends from your shoulders all the way down to biceps femoris, which is the hamstring muscle that crosses the hip [2, 9].

Does exercise on an unstable surface lead to greater activation of the core muscles?

Performing an exercise on an unstable surface, such as sitting on a Swiss ball or standing on a BOSU ball, is supposed to place greater emphasis on some of the muscles in your core, helping to improve core stability, protect against back pain, improve athletic performance, and so on.

Such exercises often appear a lot harder than their more stable counterparts. That’s mainly because you’re working so hard to stay balanced. And because of their high novelty factor, they often create the impression that they’re superior to their more stable counterparts.

There is research out there to show that an exercise performed on an unstable surface leads to higher levels of core muscle activity than that same exercise performed on the ground [2].

Squatting with a light weight on a couple of inflatable discs, for example, leads to greater activation of muscles in the torso than squatting with that same weight on the floor [1].

The big limitation with many of these studies is that they involve the use of relatively light weights. Which is a problem, because most people can lift a much heavier weight when they’re standing on the floor than they can while wobbling about on an unstable surface.

What happens when you compare differences in muscle activity using loads that take into account the fact that you can lift more weight on a stable rather than an unstable surface?

That’s exactly what researchers from Eastern Illinois University wanted to find out [7]. They looked at muscle activation in a group of 12 trained men who performed four different exercises – the deadlift, squat, overhead press, and barbell curl – at two intensities (50% of 1-RM and 75% of 1-RM) while standing on both a stable and unstable surface (BOSU ball).

Muscle activity in the abdominals and lower back was not significantly different when subjects performed the deadlift, squat, overhead press, and barbell curl using a light weight while standing on a BOSU ball rather than on the floor.

What’s more, there was no significant difference in muscle activity between the stable 75% of 1-RM and unstable 50% of 1-RM conditions for the external obliques and lower back across all four lifts.

But when the overhead press was done on a stable surface using a heavier weight, rectus abdominis (the six-pack muscle) was worked a lot harder than it was during the same exercise on a BOSU ball using a lighter weight.

Performed on a stable surface, the overhead press and barbell curl also delivered a decent level of stimulation (40-50% of their maximal voluntary contraction, or MVC for short) to the deeper abdominal muscles.

There is a time and a place for instability. Some of the exercises in the video below, for example, use instability to place greater emphasis on the core musculature.

And physical therapists have been using unstable exercise devices (e.g. Wobble boards and Rocker boards) for years to help with the rehabilitation of knee and ankle injuries [10].

But with few exceptions, training with a light weight on an unstable surface isn’t going to work the core muscles any harder than the exact same exercise done with a heavier weight on a stable surface.

Are squats and deadlifts all you need to train your core?

Squats and deadlifts render all direct abdominal work completely redundant, as both exercises provide all the stimulation your abs will ever need.

That’s the theory, anyway. But the research paints a very different picture.

Squats and deadlifts do work many of the core muscles. But it’s mainly the ones in your back, especially the spinal erectors – those cable-like muscles that run up either side of your spine.

In fact, squats and deadlifts do a better job at working the spinal erectors than the quadruped, pelvic thrust, side bridge and back extension exercises performed on a Swiss ball [3, 6].

During the deadlift in particular, they work very hard to keep your spine in its naturally arched position. Powerlifters have such well-developed spinal erectors mainly because of all the work those muscles do to prevent the spine from bending.

Squats and deadlifts are just fine for developing the posterior aspects of the core. Quadratus lumborum, a small but important muscle in the lower back that helps to stabilize the spine, is also heavily involved during the deadlift [4].

However, neither exercise does much for the anterior core, which is currently the trendy way to refer to the abs.

The figure below comes from Dr. Jeffrey McBride, a Professor in Biomechanics at Appalachian State University. He measured muscle activation in the abdominal muscles of trained lifters performing a number of different exercises.

As you can see, squats and deadlifts – even when you’re using a heavy weight that’s 80-90% of your 1-RM – don’t hit rectus abdominis particularly hard.

In fact, the overhead press triggers greater rectus abdominis activity than both the deadlift and squat [7]. But it’s still relatively low (around 10% of its MVC) compared to exercises like the rollout or even the curl-up.

Someone who can perform a standing overhead press with their bodyweight and deadlift twice their bodyweight will have developed a very high level of core strength simply by focusing on getting stronger in both exercises.

But for complete core development, squats, deadlifts and presses aren’t enough, and you’ll need exercises that work the abs directly. I’ve listed some of my favorite ones here.

While I’m on the subject of core training, I want to briefly mention the issue of spinal rotation.

Probably the most popular “spinal rotation” exercise is the broom handle twist, which is without doubt one of the most pointless exercises ever invented.

That’s not to say there’s no need to train the muscles that twist the torso. But there are far better ways to do it than twisting from side to side with a broom handle on your back.

Rather than rotation, think resisted rotation. And by resisted rotation, I’m talking about exercises that require you to resist forces trying to pull your torso around to the left or the right.

You’re still training the muscles involved in spinal rotation, but you’re doing so in a way that poses less risk to the spine.

Let’s take the Single Arm Dumbbell Row as an example. Although this is primarily an exercise to work the muscles in your back, the external obliques (the muscles on the side of your waist) are also involved. That’s because they’re actively preventing your torso from twisting.

Remember, many of the muscles in the torso can be trained very effectively bypreventing movement rather than producing it. An exercise doesn’t have to involve an actual twist to work the twisting muscles.

The Long Lever Plank Shoulder Tap, demonstrated in the video below by Ben Bruno, is another good example of what I mean.

In the starting position, you’re resisting spinal extension (arching your back), which makes this a particularly effective exercise for working rectus abdominis. Removing one of the contact points (your hand) from the floor introduces an element of instability, which then requires your body to resist rotation.

If you find this exercise too difficult, keep your hands under your shoulders in a push-up position rather than out in front of your body.

Exercises that involve resisted rotation are a far better choice than those involving actual rotation, such as the Russian Twist or Windshield Wiper, both of which make me cringe every time I see someone doing them.

If you have a history of back injury, or even if you have a healthy, pain-free back and want it to stay that way, I’d highly recommend that you steer clear of any exercise that involves this type of movement.

That doesn’t mean you should avoid rotation altogether. But make sure the movement comes from the hip, and allow the hip and back to move together at the same time, almost as if they were fused together. Watch the video below to see exactly what I mean.

Building a core of steel doesn’t need to be complicated, time consuming or boring. Nor does it require exercising on a Swiss ball, BOSU ball or any other surface that isn’t the floor.

In fact, many of the muscles in your core work very hard to prevent spinal movement during exercises like squats, deadlifts, single-arm rows, rollouts/walkouts, and standing presses. These movements build not just core strength but whole-body strength as well.

SHAMELESS PLUG: Muscle Evo wraps up all my best ideas and advice into a complete science-based training program that you can use to build muscle, burn fat and get strong. Click here for more.

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About Christian Finn

Christian Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest, and Perfect Body magazine. Connect with Christian onFacebook, Twitter or Google+.

References

1. Anderson K, Behm DG. (2005). Trunk muscle activity increases with unstable squat movements. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 30, 33-45

2. Behm DG, Drinkwater EJ, Willardson JM, Cowley PM. (2010). The use of instability to train the core musculature. Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism, 35, 91-108

3. Hamlyn N, Behm DG, Young WB. (2007). Trunk muscle activation during dynamic weight-training exercises and isometric instability activities. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21, 1108-1112

4. McGill SM. (1997). Distribution of tissue loads in the low back during a variety of daily and rehabilitation tasks. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 34, 448-458

5. McGill S, Juker D, Kropf P. (1996). Quantitative intramuscular myoelectric activity of quadratus lumborum during a wide variety of tasks. Clinical Biomechanics, 11, 170-172

6. Nuzzo JL, McCaulley GO, Cormie P, Cavill MJ, McBride JM. (2008). Trunk muscle activity during stability ball and free weight exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22, 95-102

7. Willardson JM, Fontana FE, Bressel E. (2009). Effect of surface stability on core muscle activity for dynamic resistance exercises. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 4, 97-109

8. McGill SM, McDermott A, Fenwick CM. (2009). Comparison of different strongman events: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 23, 1148-1161

9. Behm DG, Drinkwater EJ, Willardson JM, Cowley PM. (2010). Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology position stand: The use of instability to train the core in athletic and nonathletic conditioning. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 35, 109-112

10. Behm D, Colado JC. (2012). The effectiveness of resistance training using unstable surfaces and devices for rehabilitation. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 7, 226-241

From: http://muscleevo.net/how-to-build-a-core-of-steel/#.Uq2QLtIW2So

Blending vs Juicing

Why a Brisk Walk Is Better

Why a Brisk Walk Is Better

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Walking, fast or slow, is wonderful exercise. But now a first-of-its-kind study shows that to get the most health benefits from walking, many of us need to pick up the pace.

The findings stem from a new analysis of the National Walkers’ Health Study, a large database of information maintained at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory about thousands of middle-age men and women who walk regularly for exercise. Recruited beginning in 1998 at walking events and from lists of subscribers to walking-related publications, these volunteers filled out a lengthy survey about their typical walking distance and pace, as well as their health history and habits.

As most of us would likely guess, walking is the most popular physical activity in America. But people who walk for exercise do so at wildly varying speeds and intensities. Some stroll at a leisurely 2 miles per hour, which is low-intensity exercise. Others zip along at twice that pace or better, resulting in a sweatier workout.

Exercise guidelines generally suggest that for health purposes, people should engage in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week. For walkers, a moderately intense pace would probably be about 15 or 16 minutes per mile.

It has generally been assumed that if people walk more slowly but expend the same total energy as brisk walkers — meaning that they spend more time walking — they should gain the same health benefits. But few large-scale studies have directly compared the impact of moderate- and light-intensity walking, especially in terms of longevity.

To do so, Paul T. Williams, a statistician at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, gathered data about 7,374 male and 31,607 female participants from the walkers’ health study, who represented almost every speed of fitness walker, from sluggish to swift. His findings were published online this month in PLoS One.

Dr. Williams divided participants into four numerically equal categories, based on their normal pace. Those in Category 1, the fleetest, averaged less than 13.5 minutes per mile, putting them on the cusp of jogging, while those in Category 4, the slowest, strolled at a relatively dilatory 17 minutes or more per mile. The majority of the walkers in this group in fact required at least 20 minutes to complete a mile, and many had a pace of 25 minutes or more per mile. (Interestingly, on average, female walkers were faster than men in all of the categories.)

Next, Dr. Williams cross-referenced his data against that in the essential if somewhat ghoulish National Death Index to determine which of the almost 39,000 walkers had died in the decade or so since they had joined the survey and from what.

It turned out that nearly 2,000 of the walkers had died. More telling, these deaths disproportionately were clustered among the slowest walkers. Those in Category 4 were about 18 percent more likely to have died from any cause than those in the other three categories and were particularly vulnerable to deaths from heart disease and dementia.

Unexpectedly, the death rate remained high among the slowest walkers, even if they met or exceeded the standard exercise guidelines and expended as much energy per day as someone walking briskly for 30 minutes. This effect was most pronounced among the slowest of the slow walkers, whose pace was 24 minutes per mile or higher. They were 44 percent more likely to have died than walkers who moved faster, even if they met the exercise guidelines.

One important inference of these statistics is that intensity matters, if you are walking for health. “Our results do suggest that there is a significant health benefit to pursuing a faster pace,” Dr. Williams said. Pushing your body, he said, appears to cause favorable physiological changes that milder exercise doesn’t replicate.

But there are nuances and caveats to that conclusion. The slowest walkers may have harbored underlying health conditions that predisposed them to both a tentative walking pace and early death. But that possibility underscores a subtle takeaway of the new study, Dr. Williams said. Measuring your walking speed, he pointed out, could provide a barometer of your health status.

So check yours, your spouse’s or perhaps your parents’ pace. The process is easy. Simply find a 400-meter track and, using a stopwatch, have everyone walk at his or her normal speed. If a circuit of the track takes someone 6 minutes or more, that person’s pace is 24 minutes per mile or slower, and he or she might consider consulting a doctor about possible health issues, Dr. Williams said.

Then, with medical clearance, the slow walkers probably should try ramping up their speed, gradually.

The most encouraging news embedded in the new study is that longevity rises with small improvements in pace. The walkers in Category 3, for instance, moved at a speed only a minute or so faster per mile than some of those in the slowest group, but they enjoyed a significant reduction in their risk of dying prematurely.

A New York Times piece on why walking is better when you pick up the pace
Well.blogs.nytimes