•If you stop working out, your muscles will turn to fat
Muscle and fat are two different things and they cannot from one to another because they are completely two different types of tissue. The myth probably started because some former weight lifters continue to eat more even though they have already stop weight lifting. Their muscle could also shrink from long disuse.
•Look for the one with the highest amount of protein serving when choosing a protein supplement.
A protein supplement that has 50 grams of protein per serving may sounds more because it has a bigger measuring scoop or the serving suggestion may require more than one scoop. Look carefully at the serving suggestion label when buying a protein supplement.
•The longer I train in the gym, the more muscle I’ll gain.
When you train in the gym for a long time, your body hits a catabolic state and it would lead to a plateau. A plateau is an inability to progress in training and it would last for months. A training session of 45 minutes to 1 hour would be ideal.
•I should seek training advice from a pro bodybuilder.
Many bodybuilders are big because of genetics and hard work. They may not have the correct scientific explanation as to how they got that way. People with the right genetics would train and diet incorrectly and still grow big. You should seek gym instructors or trained professionals.
•The more you sweat the more fat you lose.
The amount of sweat does not necessarily reflect how hard you are working because some may sweat a lot due to heavy body weight, poor conditioning or heredity. Exercising in hot weather will make you sweat a lot and it looks like you have lost weight immediately but that lost weight is almost consisted of water in your body. The weights will return when you replenish your fluids by drinking after the workout.
•No pain, no gain?
It should never be painful and if it is, you are likely injured from overtraining. When you over train, you would experience physiological and mental stress as well as other health problems.
Sean Nalewanyj is an experienced bodybuilder that has been training for many years and is a writer for http://www.gainmusclenow.info
Friday, March 23, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Vitamins And Minerals Are Health Magnets For Our Body's Circulatory System
By: Holly Dodd
Our body’s circulatory system is made up of the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries. This circulatory system transports oxygen, nutrients, water and blood throughout our bodies as well as assists in the removal of waste products. Obviously keeping this system in tip top shape is essential to its efficiency and to our health.
One of the things we can do to help keep our circulatory system healthy is to make sure that we are properly nourishing it with healthy diet filled with vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin C is responsible for strengthening the walls of the blood vessels throughout the body. This has to do with its role in the production of collagen, which is an essential connective tissue. Copper is a mineral that is necessary for the process of making the body’s connective tissue. Biotin is critical to the health of the circulatory system, as well as to the circulatory system’s performance, as it has a function in a number of essential enzyme processes.
Vitamin E helps to promote the healthy functioning of the circulatory system in a couple of ways. It helps to dilate the veins and it has a role in the controlling of blood clotting. Another important aspect of Vitamin E is its antioxidant properties, something that it shares with Vitamin C. These vitamins, with the help of other antioxidants, serve in the essential capacity of bringing free radicals, which if left unchecked can damage body tissue, under control.
Potassium, long known as being beneficial to the heart also serves other parts of the circulatory system. One important function of potassium is to control blood pressure and fluid stability in the circulatory system. Sodium shares in these important functions of maintaining the blood’s balance and pressure. We hear so much about the negatives of sodium that it’s easy to forget that sodium is, in reality, a mineral that is essential to the body’s functioning, particularly in the circulatory system. The key to sodium is moderation, a little is necessary but too much could be dangerous.
It’s apparent that the circulatory system is essential to a healthy body. It makes sense to support its functions with a diet that meets the recommended daily levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Because the proper balance of nutrients is so vital to the functioning of our bodies and its supporting systems, choose your nutritional supplements carefully. Choosing top quality ingredients will insure that you are doing your body good and not spending money unwisely. Make your circulatory system happy, feed it!
Our body’s circulatory system is made up of the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries. This circulatory system transports oxygen, nutrients, water and blood throughout our bodies as well as assists in the removal of waste products. Obviously keeping this system in tip top shape is essential to its efficiency and to our health.
One of the things we can do to help keep our circulatory system healthy is to make sure that we are properly nourishing it with healthy diet filled with vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin C is responsible for strengthening the walls of the blood vessels throughout the body. This has to do with its role in the production of collagen, which is an essential connective tissue. Copper is a mineral that is necessary for the process of making the body’s connective tissue. Biotin is critical to the health of the circulatory system, as well as to the circulatory system’s performance, as it has a function in a number of essential enzyme processes.
Vitamin E helps to promote the healthy functioning of the circulatory system in a couple of ways. It helps to dilate the veins and it has a role in the controlling of blood clotting. Another important aspect of Vitamin E is its antioxidant properties, something that it shares with Vitamin C. These vitamins, with the help of other antioxidants, serve in the essential capacity of bringing free radicals, which if left unchecked can damage body tissue, under control.
Potassium, long known as being beneficial to the heart also serves other parts of the circulatory system. One important function of potassium is to control blood pressure and fluid stability in the circulatory system. Sodium shares in these important functions of maintaining the blood’s balance and pressure. We hear so much about the negatives of sodium that it’s easy to forget that sodium is, in reality, a mineral that is essential to the body’s functioning, particularly in the circulatory system. The key to sodium is moderation, a little is necessary but too much could be dangerous.
It’s apparent that the circulatory system is essential to a healthy body. It makes sense to support its functions with a diet that meets the recommended daily levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Because the proper balance of nutrients is so vital to the functioning of our bodies and its supporting systems, choose your nutritional supplements carefully. Choosing top quality ingredients will insure that you are doing your body good and not spending money unwisely. Make your circulatory system happy, feed it!
Rejuvenating Sex And Health Naturally
By: Dr. Randy Wysong
Our physical and psychological makeup is influenced by the sexual imperative far more than most of us realize or wish to admit. Entire systems of psychoanalytical therapy (e.g. Freud) are based upon the premise that we are primarily sexual creatures.
Behaviorally, there is little doubt that there are dramatic differences between the sexes. This can be seen even in the earliest of years. (This is so in spite of vigilant efforts by “rights” groups to blur distinctions and to declare sexual equality by legal fiat.) Girls with dolls and boys with trucks and guns manifest with no coaching from parents, and reflect the natural nurturing tendencies of girls versus the more aggressive and protecting inclination of boys. Physically the primary and secondary sexual characteristics are obviously different. These features, in fact, attract the opposite sex and prepare each sex for reproduction, caregiving and protection for the young.
But sex is not just about recreation or procreation. It can directly impact health. For example, the risk of breast cancer is directly linked to childbearing and nursing in women – having children and nursing them for extended periods of time decreases the number of ovulations a woman has and thus decreases the pro-cancerous estrogen surges. Other research has demonstrated that fulfilling sexual activity in women is also linked to health.
A man’s sense of strength, perception of attractiveness to women, feelings of being loved and depended upon, financial success, respect, and feeling accepted are all intricately tied to sexuality. Male sexual self-worth goes hand-in-hand with physical and mental health.
Who primarily commits violent crime in society? Is it not young men in the heyday of their testosterone surge? Sexuality and health at their peak create the potential for either great accomplishment or great harm depending upon how these energies are focused.
On the other hand, when male hormone levels start to ebb in later years, health decline parallels this downturn. Men experience loss of muscle mass, lowered energy levels, decreased immunity, increased susceptibility to a variety of degenerative diseases, decreased libido and fertility, and various degrees of impotence. Sensing this decline, men can feel hopeless, worthless and at the end of life. Such feelings further fuel the downward health spiral often resulting in an early death.
The importance of sexuality in men is evidenced by polls showing that men would sooner risk serious life-threatening side effects than forego the possibility that a new drug (e.g. Viagra™) might rejuvenate them sexually. Being sexually alive even in the very oldest of men may be as important as life itself.
Although male hormone levels decrease with age, the slope of the curve can be dramatically altered. It will not, however, be just a matter of taking a pill. Supplemental male hormones are available but their use disrupts the body’s natural balances and can cause negative feedback inhibition. When this occurs, exogenous hormones (pills) send a signal to hormone-producing tissues that hormone levels are high enough. Endogenous (from the body itself) production therefore slows. Over time this can weaken hormone-producing tissues so that the initial problem of inadequate production is compounded. This is at least part of the mechanism for the adverse effects of anabolic (male hormone-like) steroids taken by athletes and bodybuilders. Young men eager to exaggerate muscularity end up with withered and weakened testicles and other endocrine glands setting them up for serious diseases as they get older.
A better alternative is to make healthy lifestyle changes (suggested in the Optimal Health Program™ http://www.wysong.net/optimal_health_page1.shtml ) combined with natural nutritional supplementation, which has been proven to provide benefit to many.
Androgenic phytonutrients from herbs (such as Tribulus terrestris, Muira puama, Avena sativa and nettle leaf), amino acids (including L-arginine) and certain foods such as melons naturally increase testosterone production without the danger of negative feedback inhibition as experienced with anabolic steroids and other hormones. Increased testosterone levels, in turn, increase libido, act as an aphrodisiac and help prevent impotence. (In fact, modern research has revealed that testosterone is the only substance capable of generating libido in both men and women.)
Recent studies suggest that these phytonutrients also affect brain chemicals such that potency and erectile capacity are improved and male reproductive system growth, function, and repair is enhanced.
Phytonutrients can also improve sexual function through inhibiting the binding of sex hormone-binding globulin to its receptor site on prostatic membranes. This provides relief to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) sufferers who often experience painful intercourse, a certain impediment to sexuality.
Other nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B12 and vitamin C directly stimulate sperm production and motility and thus increase fertility. Modern, processed, food fraction-based dietary fare can be woefully deficient in these nutrients. Selecting good supplements and converting the diet to more natural, fresh and varied foods is the solution.
Lifestyle changes (outlined in the Optimal Health Program™) – not the least of which is maintaining healthy body weight and regularly exercising – when combined with proper nutrition can rejuvenate the entire body and with that send a signal to the sexual core of our biological being that we are alive and well. Such signals stimulate a natural invigoration of sexuality, and with that mental and physical health.
Our physical and psychological makeup is influenced by the sexual imperative far more than most of us realize or wish to admit. Entire systems of psychoanalytical therapy (e.g. Freud) are based upon the premise that we are primarily sexual creatures.
Behaviorally, there is little doubt that there are dramatic differences between the sexes. This can be seen even in the earliest of years. (This is so in spite of vigilant efforts by “rights” groups to blur distinctions and to declare sexual equality by legal fiat.) Girls with dolls and boys with trucks and guns manifest with no coaching from parents, and reflect the natural nurturing tendencies of girls versus the more aggressive and protecting inclination of boys. Physically the primary and secondary sexual characteristics are obviously different. These features, in fact, attract the opposite sex and prepare each sex for reproduction, caregiving and protection for the young.
But sex is not just about recreation or procreation. It can directly impact health. For example, the risk of breast cancer is directly linked to childbearing and nursing in women – having children and nursing them for extended periods of time decreases the number of ovulations a woman has and thus decreases the pro-cancerous estrogen surges. Other research has demonstrated that fulfilling sexual activity in women is also linked to health.
A man’s sense of strength, perception of attractiveness to women, feelings of being loved and depended upon, financial success, respect, and feeling accepted are all intricately tied to sexuality. Male sexual self-worth goes hand-in-hand with physical and mental health.
Who primarily commits violent crime in society? Is it not young men in the heyday of their testosterone surge? Sexuality and health at their peak create the potential for either great accomplishment or great harm depending upon how these energies are focused.
On the other hand, when male hormone levels start to ebb in later years, health decline parallels this downturn. Men experience loss of muscle mass, lowered energy levels, decreased immunity, increased susceptibility to a variety of degenerative diseases, decreased libido and fertility, and various degrees of impotence. Sensing this decline, men can feel hopeless, worthless and at the end of life. Such feelings further fuel the downward health spiral often resulting in an early death.
The importance of sexuality in men is evidenced by polls showing that men would sooner risk serious life-threatening side effects than forego the possibility that a new drug (e.g. Viagra™) might rejuvenate them sexually. Being sexually alive even in the very oldest of men may be as important as life itself.
Although male hormone levels decrease with age, the slope of the curve can be dramatically altered. It will not, however, be just a matter of taking a pill. Supplemental male hormones are available but their use disrupts the body’s natural balances and can cause negative feedback inhibition. When this occurs, exogenous hormones (pills) send a signal to hormone-producing tissues that hormone levels are high enough. Endogenous (from the body itself) production therefore slows. Over time this can weaken hormone-producing tissues so that the initial problem of inadequate production is compounded. This is at least part of the mechanism for the adverse effects of anabolic (male hormone-like) steroids taken by athletes and bodybuilders. Young men eager to exaggerate muscularity end up with withered and weakened testicles and other endocrine glands setting them up for serious diseases as they get older.
A better alternative is to make healthy lifestyle changes (suggested in the Optimal Health Program™ http://www.wysong.net/optimal_health_page1.shtml ) combined with natural nutritional supplementation, which has been proven to provide benefit to many.
Androgenic phytonutrients from herbs (such as Tribulus terrestris, Muira puama, Avena sativa and nettle leaf), amino acids (including L-arginine) and certain foods such as melons naturally increase testosterone production without the danger of negative feedback inhibition as experienced with anabolic steroids and other hormones. Increased testosterone levels, in turn, increase libido, act as an aphrodisiac and help prevent impotence. (In fact, modern research has revealed that testosterone is the only substance capable of generating libido in both men and women.)
Recent studies suggest that these phytonutrients also affect brain chemicals such that potency and erectile capacity are improved and male reproductive system growth, function, and repair is enhanced.
Phytonutrients can also improve sexual function through inhibiting the binding of sex hormone-binding globulin to its receptor site on prostatic membranes. This provides relief to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) sufferers who often experience painful intercourse, a certain impediment to sexuality.
Other nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B12 and vitamin C directly stimulate sperm production and motility and thus increase fertility. Modern, processed, food fraction-based dietary fare can be woefully deficient in these nutrients. Selecting good supplements and converting the diet to more natural, fresh and varied foods is the solution.
Lifestyle changes (outlined in the Optimal Health Program™) – not the least of which is maintaining healthy body weight and regularly exercising – when combined with proper nutrition can rejuvenate the entire body and with that send a signal to the sexual core of our biological being that we are alive and well. Such signals stimulate a natural invigoration of sexuality, and with that mental and physical health.
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