Archive for January, 2011
Monday, January 31st, 2011
Check it out all my US peeps! Click on the link, enter your e-mail address, fill out a survey, get a free NFL jersey, but only if you live in the US. With Superbowl XLV on horizon, be sure to get your favorite Pittsburgh Steelers or Green Bay Packers jersey so you can celebrate with your friends on the big day next Sunday!
I personally am rooting for the Packers since I hate the Steelers, whom the Patriots crushed in the regular season. Aaron Rodgers deserves it anyway, he’s a pretty good quarterback. (Incidentally, I hate the Jets more than the Steelers, so I’m glad the Jets got squashed in the AFC Championship game.)
Who are you rooting for in Superbowl XLV on Sunday? The Packers or Steelers?
[poll id=”26″]
- Did you watch the Pro Bowl yesterday?
- Does anyone even care about the Pro Bowl?
- Leave me some comments!
Posted in Sports | 8 Comments »
Friday, January 28th, 2011
The Fat Geek Bootcamp – From Fat to Phat
How to Change Your Lifestyle
OK, so you’re a fat guy (or girl) and you sit in front of a computer all day. In case you didn’t realize it, you are a fat geek. Or perhaps a fat nerd? Either way, those two terms can be used interchangeably for the purpose of this article. I have been one or the other, and perhaps both, at various points in my lifetime. Looking back, it was never any fun.
If you keep up your current lifestyle, only one result could be possible: you will get fatter and then you will die. This solution is neither fun nor ideal. To combat this, you should start an 8 week fitness boot camp.
Start slowly, learn some initial lessons over the course of the 8 weeks, and be prepared to embark on a lifetime fitness plan after the boot camp is over. You will need to learn something about these important health topics:
- Lifestyle – sleeping, social interaction, work hours
- Diet – what to eat, when to eat, why to eat
- Exercise – which exercises to use, how to exercise, when to exercise
Motivational Wisdom
Let me tell you what you will not have if you are a fat geek:
- Sexy girls trying to date you
- Sexy girls even looking at you (unless they are pointing and laughing)
- The strength to pick up anything over 20 pounds without straining your back
- Visible abs
- Comfortable seating in pretty much any public place except those airplanes that offer double wides for fat folks
- Low cholesterol
- The speed to out run bullies, criminals, or anything that might be trying to mug you or eat you. If a rabid skunk comes at you, you’re toast buddy.
- A life expectancy higher than mid-50s, but then if I were you I probably wouldn’t be looking forward to that whole ‘staying alive’ thing anyway.
Yes indeed, being a fat geek is probably the worst thing you can do for your social life and for your general health.
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Tags: Diet, exercise, geeks
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation, Workout Routines | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
It feels terrible and amazing at the same time. There isn’t much else in the world that’s as necessary and as good for you. It pumps you up, builds positive energy (not to mention muscles), and keeps you alert. Working out is nearly perfect. Nearly.
There are risks associated with exercising that can ruin the experience of staying in shape and looking your best. Let’s take a look at 5 of them.
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Tags: fitness, Guest Post, health, injuries, injury, mesothelioma, myths
Posted in Medical, Weight Training | 3 Comments »
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answering Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.
Kalee wrote:
I have shin splints right now so I can’t run or bike or anything but lift weights while sitting and do core exercises… unless you can think of anything that I could do for cardio that wouldn’t require me to use my legs. What exercises [should I use] until my shin splints heal? Thanks!
Response:
If you haven’t managed to avoid shin splints, then it is obvious that you haven’t read and understood my article about How to Avoid Shins Splints, but first, if you haven’t already, you should take a couple minutes to understand What Are Shin Splints. Once you’ve become well versed on shin splints, you can now read about how heal or treat shin splints. Let’s get this problem under control so you can get back to training.
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Tags: injuries, injury, leg training, legs, Medical, prevention, running, shin splitns, shins, Sports
Posted in Fitness Tips, Medical, Sports, Your Questions | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Isn’t it obvious that we wouldn’t have to know how to recover from shin splints if we could avoid them in the first place? In order to understand how to avoid shin splints, we must first understand What Are Shin Splints. Then we can better understand how to proactively avoid them. We need to learn more about who gets shin splints, how to properly warm up and stretch the lower leg, and finally we need a method of strengthening those muscles. Assuming we can’t avoid shin splints, we will need to understand How to Treat Shin Splints.
Now, let’s examine the best ways to avoid shin splints by first understanding who is in danger of developing them.
Who Gets Shin Splints?
Athletes, weekend warriors, and even military recruits often experience shin splints, especially at the beginning of the season. Sometimes treatment can be as simple as changing to softer running surface or adding extra arch support to shoes to redistribute the stress. Active rest is often recommended by doctors as a primary treatment. This means that a runner should take up non-impact exercises such as swimming or biking, which gives the injured areas time to heal, but also maintains the cardiovascular benefits of exercise.
It is also believed that people with misalignment often develop problems such as shin splints. Misalignment to the knee, pelvis, ankle, neck, and spine, can result in abnormal posture and abnormal ROM at different joints, which causes excessive wear and tear on bones, joints, and muscles.
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Tags: biomechanics, calf, calves, exercise, fitness, footwear, injuries, injury, injury prevention, leg training, legs, Medical, shin splint, shins, Sports
Posted in Fitness Tips, Medical, Sports, Weight Training | 4 Comments »
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
Maqui Berry: The Next Wonder Fruit
Maqui berry refers to a type of fruit, belonging to Elaeocarpaceae family, which is a native of Valdivian rainforests in Chile as well as adjacent areas of Argentina. Its botanical name is Aristotelia chilensis. The berries are small and purple-black in color and have a diameter of around 4-6 mm. Maqui is also known as Chilean wineberry, apart from several local names, such as maquei, koelon, queldrón, ach, and clon.
Macui is a dioecious tree, which is around 4-5 m tall, evergreen, and features smooth bark and a divided trunk. The branches are flexible, thin and abundant, whereas the leaves are pendulous, simple, opposite, glabrous, oval-lanceolate, coriaceous and have serrated edges, as well as red petioles. The flowers are white and small in size, yielding small edible fruits, which we know as Maqui berry.
With those boring details out of the way, let’s focus on the benefits of maqui berry so that you may learn how using maqui can increase your quality of life.
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Tags: anti-aging, antioxidants, Diet, dieting, fat loss, lose fat, lose weight, maqui, maqui berries, maqui berry, nutrition, pills, Supplements, weight loss
Posted in Diet, Supplements | 5 Comments »
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
Intermittent Fasting Part 2 – Eating To Win
In part 1 of the Intermittent Fasting series, I gave you a brief overview as to what intermittent fasting is and what some of the benefits are. Now it’s time to get into the nuts and bolts of how to breakdown your meals.
I view intermittent fasting as more of a long-term lifestyle change as opposed to a quick fix, and as such it should be approached in a way that addresses health as well as body composition. Before I get into more details, I want to express to following tips that will greatly increase the likelihood of you creating an awesome physique.
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Tags: Diet, dieting, fasting, intermittent fasting, leangains, meal plan, nutrition
Posted in Diet, Intermittent Fasting | 32 Comments »
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
What is a Shin Splint?
“Shin splints” is a term used to describe the pain felt between the knee and the ankle after athletic activity, and are considered a cumulative stress disorder rather than an acute injury. This painful condition occurs when muscles and tendons in the lower legs pull on the tibia bone along the shin.
There are several reasons why athletes develop shin splints, but ultimately we can say they develop when the constant stress placed on the joints, bones, and muscles of the lower leg overwhelms the body’s natural ability to recover from trauma.
The most common cause is inflammation of the periostium, the sheath that surrounds the tibia. Traction forces on the periostium from the muscles of the lower leg cause shin pain and inflammation.
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Tags: exercise, injuries, injury, injury prevention, legs, Medical, Research, running, shin splint, shins, Sports
Posted in Medical, Research, Sports | No Comments »
Monday, January 3rd, 2011
Intermittent Fasting Part 1 – A Diet Strategy to Get You Ripped
For many people, losing fat and keeping it off is an impossible task, and they’d sooner reach China by grabbing a shovel and flinging dirt around. The road to leanness is littered with the remnants horrible tasting food, dingy Tupperware containers and the dreams of those who abandoned their quest because of the seemingly insurmountable difficulty.
We’ve all been there at one point or another, but those who’ve managed to travel the wasteland and emerge on the other side victorious have done so by finding a way to stay on the path while others fell to the wayside, rules be damned.
And let’s face it: the fitness industry has managed to create a lot of rules and myths, both intentional and unintentional, to keep people in a constant state of fear and dependence, but the concept of intermittent fasting has come around and anecdotally proved that many of these claims are based off faulty and cherry-picked research, or are just flat out lies. Freeing people from the shackles of dogma and letting them indulge their inner hedonist without an ounce of guilt has helped hundreds, if not thousands, achieve the body of their dreams.
Finally! A Powerful Diet that Anyone Can Follow
Forget about Atkins, low fat dieting, low carb dieting, the South Beach Diet, or any of those other fad diets. Here is a nutrition strategy you can use year in and year out to maintain an ideal body composition, to get shredded for a show, or to lean out for summer.
Without further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to the new sheriff in town and how he can help you get to where you want to be as fast and painlessly as possible.
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Tags: Diet, dieting, eating, fasting, fat loss, food, intermittent fasting, leangains, lose fat, lose weight, nutrition, weight loss
Posted in Diet, Intermittent Fasting | 36 Comments »
