Athletes in endurance events practice a training technique called “living high, training low”. Many years ago, scientists noticed that people who live in the mountains, where the air contains lower levels of oxygen, have higher than normal blood oxygen levels. A limiting factor in events that require endurance is the time it takes to move oxygen from the lungs into the muscles. Since more than 98 percent of the oxygen in the blood is bound to red blood cells, people with high numbers of red blood cells should have higher levels of oxygen and therefore have more oxygen available for their muscles, giving them greater endurance. It appears that living and training at high altitude would improve performance even more, so theoretically, all long distance runners, cross country skiers, bicycle racers and other athletes in endurance sports would benefit from living and training at high altitudes.

However, you can’t train as intensely in the mountains where oxygen is sparse. Lack of oxygen during hard exercise slows you down. One group of researchers decided to see if living at high altitudes would increase red blood cell concentration, and training at low altitude would allow the athletes to take harder workouts. Eleven trained middle-distance runners were tested before an 18-day training session in which they slept in special low-oxygen pressure chambers and trained at sea level with oxygen-rich air (Journal of Applied Physiology, January 2006). The tests were repeated 15 days after the training. The athletes who lived high and trained low had higher maximal oxygen uptakes, higher maximal aerobic power and lower resting heart rates than the control group. The blood of these athletes could carry more oxygen, and the oxygen concentration in their bloodstream would return to normal earlier after intense competitions so their performance would improve.

Abdominal exercises are not just for building six packs. They have other uses such as alleviating your lower back pain, strengthening your abdominal muscles, and improving your overall health. For pregnant and postpartum women these exercises are especially important since for them it is not just about getting a better body shape but also about avoiding future complications and a lot of pain.

A woman undergoes a lot of changes during pregnancy. These include changes in the muscles as well since the body needs to accommodate a growing fetus. In order to allow the baby to grow, the muscles become laxer and be more stretchable. The abdominal muscles stretch the most. These stretch about 50% or more than their usual length. This could weaken these muscles causing lumbar compression. Doing abdominal exercises can strengthen the muscles. Strengthened muscles would be able to support the uterus better. They also decrease pelvic pressure and lumbar compression thus decreasing the lower back pain and pelvic pain.

Abdominal exercises done during pregnancy and postpartum also help your body deal with the condition called diastasis recti. It is a normal condition in which the abdominal muscle called rectus abdominus splits along the length so as to make room for your growing baby. Most women get this condition. Due to the diastasis your lower back will get lesser support and hence will cause you pain. There may be other discomforts as well. Also, after the pregnancy the rectus abdominus needs to join together and if you do not control the diastasis with exercises your body may have difficulty doing this. This would lead to problems such as umbilical hernia in future.

Abdominal exercises also help you have a safer and easier delivery. Other than that pilates and other exercises improve your posture and decrease pains and aches. They strengthen the pelvic floor and back which in turn protect you from any future injury. These exercises also help postpartum women get back into shape quickly.

All in all, it is very important that pregnant and postpartum women do abdominal exercises. Most exercises are safe enough though you must consult your doctor before you start on anything. Remember to drink lots of fluids while you go about these since the baby would be taking food from you and would require adequate nutrition. After postpartum if you still have fat to lose you may want to consider fat reduction exercise routines such as P90X. You may learn more on P90X, P90X reviews, and P90X workout from the links given below.

I’m old fashioned in my tastes and my favorite band of all times is the Fab Four from Liverpool, the Beatles. I have all the Beatles songs, even the rare ones, on my iPod and I always take it with me to the gym when I workout. Naturally, not everyone is a Beatlemaniac such as I am so I don’t expect you to have every single one of their songs, but if you want to know which are the best Beatles workout songs, I can suggest a few:

1. I Feel Fine – A short but super-catchy tune sung by John Lennon with the rest of the gang on backup vocals. This number can get you into a better mood in a matter of seconds.

2. Twist and Shout – This is actually a cover that the Beatles did on their first album of an American song, but their version withstood the test of time. The words “Shake it now baby” should be enough to prove that this is an awesome workout song.

3. Oh Darling – I just love this song all the way through. I think it’s the crazy guitar and Paul McCartney’s insane vocals on this song from Abbey Road that make it an all time favorite of mine. The chorus line should help you lift bigger weights no matter which exercise you’re currently doing.

4. I Saw Her Standing There – An awesome song from the Beatle’s first album. This number is a great cardio workout song and also works for strength training. Quick, upbeat, and powerful, what more do you need.

5. Eleanor Rigby – I know, this isn’t a Rock song, but something about the tempo of the strings on this song make it into such a powerful number that it always gets me into a deeper level of concentration and helps me workout better.

6. Day Tripper – This song was never featured on one of the Beatles main albums but it still earned a #1 spot on the charts. And why wouldn’t it, it’s one of the all time catchiest songs I’ve ever heard in my life.

7. Hard Days Night – John Lennon sounds like a working class hero in this song and you get the feeling that you’d better put some more into your routine yourself. I like this song especially as both John and Paul sing in it and it’s really fast and furious like a workout song should be.

One thing you should know is that most of the Beatles songs are rather short so you may need some more to cover your entire workout. These seven are surely a good start.

I’m often asked about the sweets allowed on the Medifast diet. People are often particularly interested in which taste the best and which are the most filling or satisfying. Before I tell you my opinion, I also have to tell you that there are plenty of this diet’s meals that I have eaten when I had a sweet craving or wanted a dessert. Examples of things I particularly like are the oatmeals, many of the bars, and even the pancakes. However, since most people want to know specifically about desserts, I will only be discussing items that were meant only to be desserts, with the understanding that you are not limited to only these. Many of the foods on this diet offer sweet tasting options.

My First Pick: The Chocolate Chip Soft Bake: This is a new item on the menu. It kind of has the softer and more chewy consistency of the brownie, but it tastes like a chocolate chip cookie and it is a little larger than a regular cookie and more like the size of a brownie. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s only 110 calories with only 7 grams of sugar. It also contains 4 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein. So not only does it satisfy your sweet tooth, it is also pretty filling. As of this writing, this is my favorite food that’s considered a true dessert.

My Second Pick: The Soft Serve: Before Medifast introduced their soft serve ice cream, many of us used to actually freeze the shakes in order to have a sweet and cold dessert. I’ve even frozen them in those popsicle shaped molds with great success. However, as well as that process worked (and still does,) it’s nice not to have to wait for the freezing process. Not only that, but this item has a very nice creamy texture that you just can’t accomplish by freezing the shakes. It also offers some interesting flavors like coffee and peanut butter. (Combining the chocolate mint flavor with the peanut butter makes for a delightful combination.) The nutritional content for this is similar to the soft bake, which is 110 calories.

Next Up, The Brownie: I really like the brownie but I chose the chocolate chip soft bake over it because I like the fact that the soft back has a combination of a cookie and chocolate taste. The brownie is all chocolate. And while I love chocolate, I find that I usually chose this item if I am having a severe chocolate craving whereas the previous items work in most all situations. Not only is this item chocolate flavored, but it has chocolate chips too, so it’s like getting a double dose.

Finally, The Puddings: The last dessert I will mention is the puddings. I actually really like them and am probably only listing them last because I have been eating them the longest. All of the above items are newer items on the menu whereas the pudding has been around for a while. Still, I find it an almost daily staple. It’s also very flexible as I sometimes use the dry pudding mix to make other baked goods. I particularly like the banana flavor as many of the other desserts listed above don’t have a banana option.

“The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.” – Jacques Cousteau

There is no denying the fact that in order to become a skilled scuba diver, you got to learn it from a professional but a complete myth underlying this reality is that there is no learning or scope of improvement outside of a formal course environment. I would beg to differ. I agree that diving courses are important in order to elevate one’s diving skills to the next level, but the truth is such courses are only a starting point. They can give you a foundation and you have to build upon it eventually with practice.

Note the key phrase – develop by yourself. Improvement is something that happens with every dive. So here is the list of 10 tips for the divers for constantly improving their diving skills.

1. Engage your brain

One should not blindly follow the divemaster. A good diver is the one who uses his own brain. This does not mean that you should ignore what your instructor is saying as he knows better that is why he is your master. But make sure, you are not at his mercy for directions all the time. You should be well prepared in case he goes out of sight for a while.

At all time, you should know, where your boat is, where your buddy is, how much ndl you have left etc.

2. Test your weighting

This is important as when you are properly weighted, you do not need a lot of air in your BCD. For this you have to do a simple exercise – after a dive, run your tank down to 30-40 bars. Empty your BCD. Lock your ankles together and fold your arms close to your chest, so you don’t scull. When you exhale, you should sink and when you inhale, you should come up the same amount. If you are sinking or not coming up when you inhale, you are too heavy.

If you are going up and down by the same amount, that’s your correct weight for that gear combo. It can change a little depending on the BCD type and saltiness of the sea but it would give you a starting point.

3. Know your air usage

This is something that you could acquire with practice. All you need is a routine. Start doing this exercise – Before you begin your ascent, note your depth and air. Then notice how much you have when you surface. Maintain a logbook. Also note down whether it was a free ascent or on a line. With time, you would know exactly how much air you need to ascend from 10, 20 or 30 metres respectively. Double check it by testing yourself. Soon, you would have an exact idea regarding how much air you need to surface safely.

4. Fix your buoyancy

So how do you fix it? Simple – after every 5-10 min into your dive, make sure you are over a sandy patch or you have a water column below you and stop kicking. Try to stay more or less where you are, going down when you exhale and up when you inhale. If this is not happening, add a small squirt of air and repeat until you get it right.

Here comes the tricky part though. Your muscle memory is still used to kicking in a way that keeps you off the bottom. With the above exercise, you have just sprung a surprise on it. In order to re-train your breathing and kicking style, you will do kick-pause-kick-pause rather than kick-kick-kick. Wait till you start to descend before you exhale. Keep practicing this till you get better at it.

5. Dive with a buddy

I know you are the adventurous type but you have to live a long healthy life, have children, grow old and die. So do not take any chance. Diving solo is always risky. Studies have shown 97% of all fatalities ever have happened when the diver was alone in the sea. So a friendly advice, Always dive with a buddy. It is safe and fun at the same time.

6. Keep your eyes and ears open

This basically means keen observation. Observe your dive master, fellow divers and interact with them. Ask them questions. This would help you learn some useful little tricks that would help you getting better.

7. Be aware of your abilities

You have done 50 successful dives and now you are over-confident, nothing can harm you. and overconfidence won’t just bite you in the ass in the sea, it will tear big chunks out of you. Always be realistic about your capabilities when you are under the sea.

8. Learn to say no

Many a times, people travel from far for a fun and adventurous holiday. But being there, everything is making them nervous to an extent that they do not want to dive anymore. If you are like a lot others, you may suck it up and go for the dive anyways. And then, if something goes wrong, your stress increases significantly till it becomes panic.

I am not saying, don’t push yourself at all but don’t push to an extent that you think you would regret this later.

9. No mask, no problem

The biggest reason of injury to beginners is uncontrolled ascent and uncontrolled ascent usually happens when water in the mask leads to inhaling a little water through the nose. This causes panic. This skill can be acquired with practice.

You can practice it by lying facedown in a bathtub (or swimming pool) with just a snorkel in your mouth and get used to breathing in and out from the mouth and keeping water from going in your nose.

10. Dive often

“Practice makes a man perfect.” So keep diving. It is something you love to do so I don’t think there would be any issue there. Always remember – “Diving is learned in the water and not from books and magazines.”

It is not very rare for ectomorpic individuals also known as “hardgainers” to get frustrated and discouraged when they begin trying to build muscle and gain weight. Having an ectomorphic body type means that our body requires a completely different set of rules and techniques when working out. The main reason for this is due to the fact that our muscles are much more sensitive to strain and tend to breakdown much more quickly, as well as taking an extended amount of time to heal.

In order for an ectomorphic workout to be effective, we need to take into consideration the way our body and muscles function and handle different types of strain and intensity. The following are 3 quick and easy tips to remember that will help you to start gaining the muscle mass you are working so hard for.

Rest more Lift Less

It is absolutely crucial that you spend more time out of the gym resting and recovering that time in the gym lifting weights. It has been shown in a number of studies that an ectomorph’s body responds better to workout sessions that last no longer than 1 hour, 3-5 times per week.

Compound Exercises are Key

This is another very important thing to keep in mind, since we only have about an hour to workout, it is crucial that we hit as many muscle fibers within the targeted muscle groups as possible. Remember that the more muscle fibers that are worked the better the results. Compound exercises are exercises that hit more than one muscle group at a time and therefore work the most muscle fibers in less time. It is for this reason that you need to stick with compound movement exercises such as:

-Bench Press

-Squats

-Clean and Press

-Skull Crushers

-Barbell Curl

-Military Press

-Dips

-Deadlifts

Longer Time under Tension = More Muscle Gains

With an ectomorphic body type, you should be focusing on lifting with a tempo that allows your muscles to be under tension for a longer period of time. Most people lift with a tempo of 2 seconds to lower 0 rest and then 1 second to push or pull the weight to the starting position. However studies have shown that increasing the time under tension especially in the isometric phase works more muscle fibers. So instead of a 1,0,2 ratio increasing it to a 1,0,4 ratio would work out way more muscle fibers which means more muscle growth. Other methods that would help would be to include things like:

-Supersets

-Half Reps

-Assisted Reps

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are addicted to bubbly artificially sweetened diet drinks, drunk morning, noon, and night. An astonishing number of people even make a breakfast out of Diet Coke. If you have Type 2 diabetes, however, all that diet soda can have very detrimental effects on your health.

The biggest problem with artificially sweetened beverages for Type 2 diabetics is their effect on the pancreas. Although you are not conscious of them, your pancreas has taste receptors for sweetness that work in the same way as those on our tongue. When a sugary sweet drink touches your lips, you get a sweetness signal in your brain. When the drink reaches your small intestine, you get a sweetness signal in your pancreas.

When the pancreas experiences a sweet sensation, it releases insulin to transport the sugar that should be soon to arrive from your digestive tract. If the beverage is sugar-free, however, there is no sugar to be released.

What happens with all that insulin? If you are working hard at keeping your blood sugar levels in control, then for a while your blood sugar levels may run a little low. Instead of a pick me up, a diet drink becomes a let you down. You feel a little tired, or a little jumpy, or worse, both at the same time. Diet drinks make well-controlled Type 2 diabetics feel bad.

On the other hand, a Type 2 diabetic who is letting blood sugar levels run high will just experience the sweet taste. The added insulin may lower blood sugar levels just a little (this happens more often with drinks that are sweetened with saccharin, also known as Sweet ‘N Low, than with drinks that are sweetened with aspartame, also known as NutraSweet). More than likely the drink has no immediate effect on blood sugar levels or energy levels at all. It just satisfies a habit. But on a cellular level, the extra insulin wreaks havoc with your body.

The underlying problem of Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance. Cells all over your body turn off their receptors for insulin to keep from being flooded with sugar. The more sugar around them, or the more insulin around them, the more insulin-resistant they become.

When you drink sweet drinks that don’t deliver any nutritional value, cells all over your body shut down insulin receptor sites. That means the next time you eat a food with real carbohydrates, your pancreas has to work just a little harder to make just a little more insulin to lower blood sugar levels. The extra insulin, unfortunately, is still very capable of transporting fatty acids into fat cells. This means you become more and more diabetic as your fat cells are more and more ready to stuff themselves with the first extra calorie they can.

It is not really hard to stop drinking diet sodas. If you experience a headache the first day, it’s OK to take an aspirin or NSAID. Just don’t make a habit of replacing one addiction with a new addiction to pain relievers. If you stop diet drinks, you will find controlling your Type 2 diabetes easier, and you may save hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year.

Why do so many people fear the dreaded 8 count body builder? Because they are a brutal bodyweight exercise that have been used in the military by the Elite Navy Seals.

I have read and bought many books on military training on every part of the military. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and they all show the exercise the 8 count body builder as one of the exercises that help get them in great shape.

But one book a Navy Seal training manual talks about how every Friday they would have to do 1×100 of this brutal exercise. And how the Seals hated it, I read this many years ago when I was just making a transition from weight training to bodyweight training.

I thought how hard could it be? First time I did it I managed 60 of these bodybuilders and thought about never doing them again. But, there was no way that was going to happen I was on my own mission to do 100 in 10 minutes and accomplished it.

What made me want to know more about these and the fact that the author of the book left out the feared 8 counts out of the workout section because how brutal they are. I liked that. If he left it out because he hated them I wanted to do them.

It’s been many years and I still do them and it is still a feat to accomplish 100 in under 10 minutes. My best was 600 in 1 hour and 100 in under 15 minutes wearing a 40 lb weight vest.

These are tough workouts and the exercise will work your body pretty complete. I have combined 8 counts with bodyweight squats and also used a combo using bodybuilders and a jump rope, both are amazing fat burning and strength building workouts.

If you just managed 50 of these beast the average man would not be average anyone who is a little skeptical drop down for some right now and see how many you can get in 1 minute or 2 minutes I think you will be surprised.

The only down fall is that most people will never do them as a regular part of their workout, and the reason is they are very demanding. You can be like everyone else and do everyone else s workouts; you know the workouts designed by the average man for the average man.

You want to be elite? You train and do the exercises that the elite train with!

When you want to lose weight and you have tried several methods without good results, you may want to look for ways that is safe and also effective. If you searched the net and you might be able to find a diet program called genie diet. This strange-named program gives the information on how to cleanse your body and lose weight at the same time. This article will be about my review of genie diet.

The author of the site has claimed that he has tried many ways to lose weight. He used one product to lose weight and he lost a certain pounds from the product. But he was not successful in keeping it that way. The problem was he could not continue to use the product every months in order to keep his satisfactory weight. It was too costly for him so he decided to look for other ways to lose weight and not so expensive.

This is how he wrote genie diet program. He claimed that many Hollywood stars and professional athletes use the same program successfully. They can also maintain the good result for the long run.

Genie diet was complied from the concept that contradicts to the conventional way of thinking about being fat. In the old days, you believe that you are fat because you take more calories than you can use them. As a result, you store the excess fat and become fat. The way to lose weight is to eat less calories and use more calories by exercise.

The concept of genie diet is not like that. It says you are fat because your body is polluted by chemical toxins that you have from food. They include mono sodium glutamate (MSG), pesticide, preservatives, artificial color etc. These toxins endanger your body function and the body needs some defense mechanism. Accumulating fat is one of the body strategies.

How to get rid of excess pounds is to cleanse your body. Genie diet offers the program that cleanses your body from those toxins and you will lose weight. The program uses the ingredients that you can find easily in the grocery stores near your home. They said it is a convenient way and inexpensive way to lose weight and continue the weight you want without gaining it back.

I would say that the concept of genie diet is reasonable since I have heard the similar concept from many places before. They claim that the product will work in ten days with the guarantee. I think it would be worthwhile since I couldn’t find any negative feedback from the program.

Genie diet can be one of the solutions to lose weight and cleanse your body if you strictly follow the plan.

Lithium has been used for decades to treat bipolar disorders and the manic episodes during manic depression. With the development of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), it was thought that lithium would no longer be needed, as SSRIs generally have less severe side effects than lithium. This did not happen, as many therapies to treat depression and bipolar mood swings that involved an SSRI are now being augmented with lithium.

How does Lithium Work with an SSRI?

Lithium is one of the most common substances used in conjunction with SSRIs. The method by which lithium works is in its altering of the transportation of sodium throughout nerve and muscle cells. It is sodium that plays a major role in the excitability of those suffering manic episodes as they deal with manic depression and bipolar disorder.

The dosing of lithium is used extensively in maintenance therapy, by reducing the intensity of manic episodes and, as a means of maintenance dosing, to aid in the prevention of manic episodes and bipolar disorder symptoms. There is, however, the possibility of an adverse interaction by using lithium and an SSRI. Lithium can increase the serotonin regulatory effects of SSRIs more than needed, which can lead to serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal disease.

Effects of Lithium during SSRI Treatment

Though lithium is a proven treatment in certain personality disorders, it does come with side effects. These side effects are more common, and sometimes more severe, than those of SSRIs which was the inspiration for the development of SSRIs. Some of the side effects of lithium are as follows:

• Drowsiness
• Excessive Thirst
• Fatigue
• Hand Tremors
• Increased Urination
• Nausea
• Thyroid Problems
• Weakness
• Weight Gain

Interactions with Lithium during SSRI Therapy

There has been some cause for concern when augmenting SSRI therapy with lithium. Lithium has been known to interact negatively with fluoxetine, an SSRI known by several brand names most popularly Prozac. Of all the current SSRIs, citalopram (Celexa) has had the least complications due to interactions with other drugs and has not shown to have any adverse affects in combination with Lithium.

The most common and worrisome complication due to interactions between SSRIs and lithium is serotonin syndrome. Serotonin syndrome is simply an increased amount of serotonin that gathers in the central nervous system. The excess serotonin is caused by over stimulation from drugs that are used to regulate serotonin levels in the body, such as an SSRI. This can be caused simply by an overdose of an SSRI, or by taking other substances, such as lithium, in concert with an SSRI.