Love it or avoid it, running hills is simply great conditioning. After exerting yourself to climb hills, running in the flats will feel easy. Once you begin tackling hills, they will be less intimidating.Find a hill in your area, and use map my run to figure out the percentage of the grade by clicking on the "show elevation" button. Find a hill with a medium grade of about five to six percent.
* Warm up at an easy jog for five minutes, then pick up the pace and keep running for five more. Use this time to wend your way to your designated hill.
* Maintain your comfortable running pace, and climb the hill for 30 seconds. Slowly jog or walk to starting point and repeat four more times. On the last two reps, pick up your pace for the last 15 seconds.
* Now run uphill, maintaining your moderate running pace for three 60-second runs. Slowly jog or walk back to your starting point.
* Run fast for 15 seconds uphill twice, slowly jogging or walking to return to your starting point.
* Cool down with 10 minutes of easy running.
7 Things You Didn't Know About Fat
Fat is a word that most of us do not want to hear on a regular basis, especially when it relates to our own bodies. We associate fat with growing beer guts, tighter pants, and less-than-ideal sex and social lives.
However, fat plays a critical role in many of the processes our bodies go through each and every day, and it has both positive and negative sides.
This three-letter-word has more secrets than you know...
1. Fat cells can swell to as much as six times their minimum size
When you consume more calories than you burn off, fat cells in the body swell to as much as six times their minimum size, and they begin to multiply — from 40 billion in an average adult up to 100 billion. Everyone has fat cells; they begin to form and take shape before birth. Around the age of 16, the body's fat cells are mature, and then lifestyle and genes play a role in gaining or losing weight as you age.
Fat cells are critical for survival and help assist the body's "store and management" energy system. Simply put, fat that is not used for fuel immediately is stored for later use. To that end, if you're eating high-calorie meals every day and not burning very many calories, your fat cells swell and multiply, resulting in weight gain.
2. Fat cells secrete extra estrogen
Carrying a few extra pounds may also wreak havoc on your hormonal balance, leading to a variety of illnesses and health risks. Estrogen, the classified "female hormone," is a fat-storing hormone that is also naturally present in small amounts in men. But when you gain weight, estrogen levels rise and other health problems ensue.
Although estrogen is necessary in men, as it regulates a healthy libido, improves brain function (especially memory) and protects the heart, when the levels are too high, testosterone levels are reduced, and many men experience fatigue, muscle tone loss, decreased sexual function, and in some cases, enlarged prostates. In other words, there are no good side effects to increased estrogen levels in men.
3. If you lose a lot of weight, your fat cells shrink, but they do not disappear
Having 100 billion fat cells in your body from weight gain may sound scary. The good news is that you can still lose weight after your fat cells swell and multiply; in fact, when you lose weight, your fat cells shrink. Although their total number only decreases slightly (if at all), the cells become less metabolically active and remain in your body, waiting for you to pick up a bag of pork rinds so they can expand again.
This means that it's better to try to maintain a normal weight than to gain and lose weight on fast, "quick fix" types of diets. Someone who has maintained a normal weight (i.e. has been relatively thin) all their life will have an easier time staying at that weight than someone whose fat cells have swelled and multiplied.
4. Fat tissue attracts cells that promote inflammation
Aside from the lousy way you feel when you're packing a few extra pounds, there are also internal complications that result from excess fat.
Fat tissue attracts immune system cells called macrophages that promote inflammation in the body. So, if you are carrying any extra fat, your body begins to produce an immune response similar to the reaction your body exhibits when you develop the flu or have an injury.
Inflammation's intended purpose in the body is to fight infection. Therefore, your body sees the extra fat calories that you consume from fried calamari and greasy pizza as an invasion in the body.
But don't worry: You don't have to give up your favorite foods just yet. Studies show that decreasing your total body weight by as little as 10% (if you're overweight) can improve your health and limit the immune response that your body exhibits from the extra weight.
5. Fat cells behave differently in different parts of the body
Men typically carry excess weight in the midsection; thus, if you gain weight (whether you drink beer or not), most of it will go directly to your gut first.
Belly fat increases the likelihood of bad cholesterol (LDL), triggers extra fat in the bloodstream, and raises blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Furthermore, abdominal fat tends to be deeper inside the body, as opposed to hip or thigh fat, which is stored directly under the skin.
Fat cells within the abdomen are metabolically more active than fat cells located in other areas of the body. They release more fatty acids, which can lead to diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, and certain cancers. Abdominal fat cells may also affect the healthy functioning of the liver.
Unfortunately, there is no way to target weight loss in one specific area of the body (i.e. your abs). So, in order to lose your spare tire, you must exercise your entire body. The good news is that excess weight in the midsection is usually the fastest to come off during regular exercise.
6. If you consume no fat at all, you will short-circuit your body
If you avoid consuming any fat, you will short-circuit your body's natural system for transporting vitamins through the body and regulating cholesterol levels.
As noted above, fats are critical for maintaining your body's natural processes, such as vitamin absorption and energy production. Without these particular fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), the body cannot suitably absorb calcium, hormone production may be negatively affected, and blood may have difficulty forming and/or clotting properly.
A lack of fat-soluble vitamins can lead to serious health problems, including night blindness, rickets, anemia, and internal bleeding. Furthermore, when the body cannot absorb calcium, bones can become weak and brittle.
Fat — the unsaturated type — can also play a role in regulating cholesterol by lowering your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol levels.
7. Fat calories should only be 30 percent of your total daily calories
Despite all of its secrets, fat is not the enemy. A certain amount of fat is needed to maintain the normal functioning of your body's internal processes. Fats aid in the absorption of certain vitamins, and above all, they provide your body with the energy it needs to function every day.
A healthy diet should take approximately 30% of its total calories from fat. However, keep in mind that fat contains twice the number of calories of a carbohydrate or protein, and that different fats are considered "healthier" than others.
Saturated fat, which is derived from red meat and dairy products, tends to raise bad (LDL) cholesterol levels more than other types of fat, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in nuts, olive oil and fatty fish.
Saturated fat has also been linked to abdominal obesity, as has trans fat, which is found in many processed foods.
Coexisting With Fat
Despite its ugly reputation, you can have a healthy relationship with fat and maintain a lean body. Here are some tips:
— Choose "healthy" fats (olive oil, nuts and fatty fish) and bypass the obvious "bad" fats (fried/fast food, baked goods and sugary soft drinks)
— Steer clear of processed foods and eat animal products (meat and dairy) in moderation
— Watch your abs — if you're belly has started to resemble the spare tire sitting in the trunk of your car, get to the gym!
Learn to Love: Lunges
Lunges are one of those exercises people either love or hate. There is however one powerful reason to love them: they sculpt a lovely tush. They also make your legs incredibly strong, which is a bonus as well.
Considered a compound exercise, lunges work your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves, just like ever popular squats. Lunges, though, require more finesse, since you move through the motion — stepping forward, back, or to the side to lunge. This movement makes your core work more than in a squat, since you need it to maintain your balance as you move through space, especially if you are holding a weight over your head. The push-off motion, to move out of the lunge, and back to standing position translate into function fitness for running, as well as cutting on a basketball court or lunging to make a shot on the tennis court. The lunge has many variations. I like taking my lunges for a walk to help my running. Backward lunges really work my booty, and side lunges work the inner and outer thighs. You can hold dumbbells while you lunge, and you can also add bicep curls and overhead presses too. Holding a weight in one hand and lunging is also a nice challenge to your balance. Or you can always add a resistance band to your lunges as well.
7 Food Safety Tips For the Fourth of July
Fourth of July is all fun and games — until someone gets food poisoning! OK, while that may not be your biggest concern this holiday, don't forget food safety when making salads and moving meat from the kitchen to the 'cue. Here are a few important rules to remember.
* Clean your plates. If you transport raw meat to the grill on a platter, be sure to wash the platter before plating up the cooked meat or swap out a clean one.
* Keep separate cutting boards. Don't use the same cutting board for raw meat that you do for other foods, and be sure to wash rigorously anything that comes into contact with the raw stuff.
* Take the temperature. Use a meat thermometer to determine when you meat is cooked: the FDA recommends a temp of 160°F for ground beef and 165°F for poultry.
For tips regarding the nonmeat part of the meal, read more.
* Wash the produce. Even if you're grilling the veggies, be sure to rinse them thoroughly and give potatoes and root veggies a scrub with a brush.
* Opt for loose lettuce. Avoid potentially contaminated bagged produce and go for heads of lettuce instead. Better yet, discard the outermost layers before washing.
* Mind the mayo. Don't leave mayonnaise-based salads like potato salad out for more than two hours or, if it's above 90°F, an hour.
* Put it away. Refrigerate any leftovers within two hours of eating.
Healthy Cooking Tip: Cook Your Carrots Whole
Orange and sweet, carrots rank as one of my favorite foods. Recent research has revealed that the carrot, similar to the potato, retains more of its cancer-fighting nutrients when cooked whole.
The anticancer properties of carrots are enhanced by 25 percent when not chopped preboil. When you chop a carrot, you increase the surface area of the veggie, so more nutrients leach into the water when boiled. The researcher wholeheartedly believe that carrots taste sweeter when cooked whole, for the root veggies retain their natural sugars.
While steaming carrots is my cooking method of choice, I am not sure I will try to steam mine whole. Roasting whole carrots, on the other hand, is something I already do. How do you cook your carrots? Will you be cooking them whole from now on?
Maximum Muscle Definition in One Week
Giving yourself enough time to accomplish your training goals is important if you want to avoid feeling rushed and resorting to unhealthy measures.
Unfortunately, events like a weekend at the beach or a date where clothes might come off tend to spring up suddenly, and time isn’t always an option. Having a back-up plan for getting lean quickly is important. While you aren’t going to make dramatic changes in such a short period of time, enhancing your appearance is possible if you follow these steps over the course of a week.
Here is your one week plan for maximum muscle definition.
Seven Days Out:
To prepare for your intense week of exercise, the first thing you want to do is carb up, saturating the muscles with muscle glycogen. Consume three grams of carbohydrates for every pound of body weight, drinking plenty of water to reduce any bloating from the additional carbohydrate intake.
Five to Six Days Out:
On day six, drop your carbohydrate intake so you’re just eating vegetables and complex carbohydrates around the workout. This helps you lean down, since you begin losing water weight that was stored in your body. Also be sure you are getting at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight to keep your metabolism high and prevent muscle-mass loss.Schedule your workouts so you perform your usual workout on day six, and either take day five off or do a light cardio session. Be sure to perform thorough stretching exercises after your full-body workout as muscle soreness will occur while on a reduced carbohydrate diet.
Four Days Out:
On the fourth day, you want to perform a full-body workout, using a rep range of 5-8 and focusing on lifting heavy to maintain strength. This will keep the tension on the muscles, preventing them from appearing flat as you continue your lowered carbohydrate diet.Perform 3-4 sets of bench presses, bent-over rows, squats, dead lifts, and shoulder presses. You can perform some isolated work, but that’s not necessary at this point. Instead, put your efforts toward lifting heavy and conserving energy. As before, include thorough stretching after your workout.Three more days of exercise toward maximum muscle definition after the jump...
Three Days Out:
Three days out, boost your carbohydrate intake so you’re around 50 grams for the day, plus the carbohydrates around your workout. This will help refill muscle glycogen levels to prepare you for the day two workout, without leaving you looking smooth all over.The workout for today should be cardio training, bringing the intensity level up a notch. You can perform interval training if you like, but use longer intervals of one minute in length to prevent glycogen depletion at the very high intensity level.
Two Days Out:
Today you are going to perform another full-body workout, only this time you’ll boost your reps up to the 12-15 rep range, lowering the weight accordingly. The aim of this workout is to get a good muscle “pump,” filling the tissues with blood and decreasing muscle glycogen levels further. This will really increase the leanness and bring out muscle definition. As for your diet, increase your protein intake slightly while moving back to consuming just the carbohydrates before and after the workout and fibrous vegetables the rest of the time.
The Day Before:
Finally, the day before the event you can do some light cardio, but don’t push yourself too hard. You want the muscles to retain some muscle glycogen, since that will keep them from looking smaller. Moreover, complete glycogen depletion will ramp up your hunger levels, making the next two days of dieting much harder.Focus on drinking plenty of water during this time and really watch your sodium intake. Even a small amount of sodium can have a very large impact on your abdominal definition, so try and cut it out as much as possible.
The Day of the Event:
By day seven, you should be looking noticeably leaner and ready to show off your hard work. You don’t need to worry about doing a full-fledged workout this day, but a couple of sets of push-ups, sit-ups, and body weight squats will help give the muscles a bit more pump and bring out their definition. Stick to the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet to keep your energy level steady and prevent cravings from blindsiding you. You may also consider backing off your intake of water to help further enhance your leanness — just be sure to drink a small amount every few hours.
Get Cut Quick:
By following this week-long plan for leanness, you’ll be sure you’re looking your best. Remember, this type of workout is only a good idea if you're focusing on a specific event for which you want to have maximum muscle definition — it's an extreme regimen that will be tough to maintain.
