Michael Gonzalez-Wallace is the author of Super Body, Super Brain. You can read more from him at www.superbodysuperbrain.com or pick up his book Super Body, Super Brain.
Use it or lose it.
If we don’t use our muscles, they will wither in atrophy and if we don’t use our brain, our brain will shrink. If the brain is not used, different brain areas will slow down leading to a faster decline in cognitive abilities such as multitasking, learning, memory or movement. A study from Harvard University concluded that lack of brain activity between different areas of the brain means faster aging.
However, what if I told you that is possible to be faster mentally or in better physical shape now than you were 5 or 10 years ago? For the last 10 years, we have being seeing a brilliant phenomena called brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is the brain’s capacity to rewire or regenerate itself, and the key is stimulation. Anytime you stimulate the brain, you are strengthening existing connections and creating new powerful networks. In other words, you are strengthening your brain like a muscle.
According to Dr John Ratey Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University, exercise is the ultimate way to improve brain plasticity. Nice! But plasticity doesn’t only affect our brains- but affects our muscles as well. Muscle fiber plasticity refers to the capacity of our muscles to change shape, form and structure and there is no age limit, you just need to be consistent with a resistance training program.
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Thin in 30 days? Maybe. Doing it in three 20 minute workouts a week? Prove it.
I’m always wary of workout programs that offer more results with less effort. Turns out, in this case, less effort doesn’t mean less exercise, just less of a time commitment, which I can get behind.
The FIRM has been a trusted name in exercise and fitness for years, with workouts designed to empower women to work towards their best bodies and achieve total body fitness in the comfort of their very own home.
The FIRM has introduced a new workout series called The FIRM Express, which takes their successful fitness philosophy and condenses it down into three times weekly 20 minute workouts that promise to get you “thin in 30″ days. Like all of the workouts by The FIRM, this program combines effective cardio exercises with weight training to get results faster and help you burn more fat than traditional cardio or weight lifting alone.
This 12 DVD program includes 12 workouts you will use through four different cycles that are specifically sequenced to optimize weight loss. The FIRM Express boasts that you can burn up to nine times more fat with this program than traditional workouts.
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I’m Andi Guthrie, a wife, mother of two and Naunie to one. I am also a two-time cancer survivor diagnosed first at the age of 22 when my children were 4.5-years old and six-months old. I’m a fighter that never gave up and never had pity upon myself. Thyroid cancer was my first cancer and it had spread into my lymph nodes and also my parathyroid. I went to the doctor because I was unable to lose the weight after the birth of our daughter and I had never had a weight issue before. This was when the doctor found a tumor in my neck and two weeks later I was having the first of two surgeries.
Since that time I have been battling to lose weight and have not been successful. I’ve used diet pills, I tried out for the Biggest Loser twice, then finally was approved for LAP-band surgery. It was at that point when I was picking up the phone to schedule my surgery that I could not rightfully admit that I had 100 percent tried to lose weight the healthy way on my own. Instead of scheduling surgery I cancelled all appointments and removed my name from the surgery list. On January 25, 2010 I started my journey of a happier, healthier me and have given this journey 100 percent of me!
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ExerciseTV celebrity trainer and New Balance Fitness Ambassador Holly Perkins has created a complete fitness program in a single dvd. Fitness 360 provides cardio, toning, and yoga routines that can be done in 20 minutes or less. The free workout plan and meal guidelines available online, including a shopping guide, make this a full program.
Cardio 360 and Total Tone 360 both last 20 minutes, while Yoga Energizer 360 lasts for 10 minutes. While it got my heart rate up and engaged my muscles, I was able to complete all three at one time. Although completing the workouts was not difficult for me, I was pretty sore for the next couple of days, proving just how beneficial Fitness 360 can be. I will be following Holly’s plan more closely from this point.
The short segments will enable you to fit in a solid workout on any day; however, I do not suggest that you do this when starting out with Fitness 360. The Fitness 360 plan calls for a day off every seven days, and incrementally adding the Yoga Energizer 360 workout following the other two. Fitness 360 can be a great fit for someone who does not have a lot of time or someone who wants to be able to extend their workouts.
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Holly Perkins is the New Balance Fitness Ambassador and an Exercise TV Trainer. She holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition from Penn State University and has worked with Adrian Grenier, Howard Stern and a Presidential Candidate. Holly’s advice can been seen in many national publications and websites.
In addition to being the New Balance Fitness Ambassador, I am a personal trainer most days of the week. While my clients come in all shapes and sizes, and have varied fitness goals, there is one request that I hear regularly: “I need to get in shape fast for a big event this weekend!” I get asked this so often that I’ve developed my special recipe for success. After 16 years in the fitness industry and many hours working with celebrities, models, and athletes, I’ve developed 5 steps to get you slim in 5 days. Keep in mind that these 5 steps will make you slimmer and lean quickly, but the results aren’t completely fat loss. A 1-3 pound water loss with these steps is expected. If you lose more weight than that, you can know for sure it’s real fat loss!
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