My Back Workout

My Back Workout
Writing is one of my favorite things in the world. I love
to impart knowledge to people who are truly looking to sort
through the maze of misinformation out there on health and
fitness and learn how to achieve optimal health and enjoy a
much higher quality of life. Trust me people.....you will
enjoy everything in your life better when you are
healthy!—give yourself the gift of good health!

In this article I'm going to tell you exactly what I do for
my back. I do four exercises on my back day.

1) Machine Shoulder Shrugs - I get a tight grip on the
handles and keep my arms straight and imagine they are
bars. Standing straight up and holding the grips with my
arms straight down at my sides, I shrug with my traps to
lift the bars up as far as I can. I don't try to pull it up
with my arms. All of my focus is my traps doing the work.
Then slowly lower bars and relax your trap and repeat.

2) Machine Close Grip Row - The machine makes you assume
the proper position. Sitting down and bracing your chest
against the pad, reach forward and grab the handles.
Keeping your back straight use your back muscles to pull
the bars toward your midsection. Once again don't use
your arms to "pull" the handles. Bring to your body
then slowly let bars return to starting position and
repeat.

3) Lower Back Machine - Sit in machine with knees bent and
feet on platform, back resting against pad. Smoothly
and slowly push back the back pad with your rigid back
to the full range of motion of the machine. Slowly let
the back pad return to original position and repeat.

4) Cable Machine Wide Grip Pulldown - Sit on the bench and
reach up and grab bars with a wide grip. Use your back
to pull the bar down in front of you to your chin
level. Once again think of your arms as bars. Slowly
let bar raise up until your arms are extended fully again
and repeat.

I use an advanced pyramid routine—3 sets pyramiding upward
in weight for each exercise, with the corresponding number
of repetitions decreasing. I also switch the order of the
four exercises each week to keep my muscles shocked into
growing.

Example:
1st set - 3 plates a side for 12 reps
2nd set - 4 plates a side for 10 reps
3rd set - 5 plates a side for 8 reps

To maintain progress and strength in any weight-training
program, each muscle group should be worked out at least
once a week. It is important to work out all of your
muscles each week, not just certain ones. When you start a
weight training program, there will be a trial-and-error
period where you will learn what poundage to use for each
exercise. No matter what your goals, your resistance should
be such that the last repetition of each set is all you can
do. As a general rule of thumb, you should exhaust the
muscle after performing ten to twelve repetitions of one
exercise. If you do not, then you should increase the
weight. Learn the correct weight for you.

The gym is not a contest to see who can throw around the
most weight and impress people. It is about using the right
amount of weight per exercise to make your body grow and to
build lean muscle and burn fat. Learn the science of
weight training and really make your time in the gym as
productive as it can possibly be!

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Learn about achieving optimal health, fighting disease,
reversing aging and training your mind to be successful,
fulfilled and happy at http://www.totalhealth4life.net

Brain Training for Stress Management: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs

Brain Training for Stress Management: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs
Stanford University's Robert Sapolsky and others have shown
how chronic stress may contribute to the death of neurons
in our brains.

The question is, with all the thousands of courses and
products out there that promise stress management miracles,
how can one evaluate them? how do we know which ones are
science-based and have shown results?

Probably the most promising area of scientific inquiry for
stress management is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR). You may have read about it in Sharon Begley's Train
Your Mind, Change Your Brain book.

An increasing number of neuroscientists (such as UMass
Medical School's Jon Kabat-Zinn and University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Richard Davidson) have been
investigating the ability of trained meditators to develop
and sustain attention and visualizations and to work
positively with powerful emotional states and stress
through the directed mental processes of meditation
practices. And have put their research into practice for
the benefit of many hospital patients through their
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs.

The Mind & Life Institute, led by Adam Engle, has provided
critical support to many neuroscientists who want to study
the health benefits of meditation and have developed MBSR
programs.

My wife and I were fortunate to conduct recently a brain
training experiment, in the form of a breathing &
meditation retreat, with some neuroscientists and Adam
Engle, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Mind & Life Institute.

The Mind and Life Dialogues "started in 1987 as an
experiment to determine whether a scientific exchange could
occur between modern science and Buddhism. MLI has now
sponsored 14 dialogues (between the Dalai Lama and
neuroscientists) over the last 20 years. In that time MLI
has become a recognized world leader in the emerging
scientific investigation of the effects of contemplative
practices on the brain, behavior, and the translation of
this data into effective tools to benefit all people
everywhere."

A few notes from our conversation with Adam

- He helped launch the Mind & Life Institute to build a
science-based field of interdisciplinary study to
investigate the applications of the "database of practices"
that Buddhism and some Christian traditions have
accumulated over milennia.

- From early on it became clear that they needed to engage
Western neuroscientists in order to be credible and become
a real East-West bridge with potential to reach mainstream
society.

- They are very happy that Sharon Begley's book Train Your
Mind, Change Your Brain has become a non-fiction
Bestseller, since it is based on one of the Mind & Life
Dialogues.

- He is glad to see the inroads that Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction (MBSR) is making in the medical world
thanks to solid research. He believes the Corporate
Training and Leadership market is also going to become very
interested in this technique for stress management. The
main bottleneck for growth? the existing number of
qualified instructors does not meet the increasing demand.

The Institute sponsors research in a number of ways, and
they just announced that the 3rd annual Scientists Retreat
will take place at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in
Barre, Massachusetts, January 8-15, 2008.

A description of the program: "This course has been
organized by scientists, for scientists. Its goals are to
help researchers in the mind sciences experience in-depth
training in meditation and explore ways in which a rigorous
and systematic approach to introspection can inform
research. We consider this to be a rare opportunity to
advance the scientific study of the human mind. Vipassana
is an ancient method of introspection that readily conforms
to the spirit of empirical science. It is simply a means of
training the mind to be more keenly aware of sensory
phenomena and the flow of thought."

I hope you have enjoyed learning about this fascinating new
field of research. And that next time you are looking for
stress management programs, you ask your health provider
whether they offer Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
courses.

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Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of
SharpBrains.com, which combines the latest science-based
information for Brain Training with fun Brain facts, and
has been recognized by Scientific American Mind,
MarketWatch, Forbes, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Education
and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science
of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute.
You can learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/

Why consistency is the only surefire way to build muscle

Why consistency is the only surefire way to build muscle
If you've been struggling to build muscle, this could be
one of the most important articles you read this year. As
I write this, the year 2007 is drawing to a close.
However, it doesn't matter when exactly you read this, for
the message will be relevant for the rest of your life. I
wish to speak to you briefly about the most important
component in muscle building (and throughout other areas of
your life, for that matter). What is this crucial
component of any strength training or mass building
program? It's Consistency.

You may have heard this at various times in your life.
You've heard it stated in different adages like "inch by
inch it's a cinch" and "try, try again" along with a dozen
other clichés. You probably brushed it aside at the
time, since our tendency is to search for the magic bullet
- the one key that will unlock all of our desires with the
least amount of effort. Unfortunately, we inevitably learn
that there is no magic bean that can replace due diligence,
determination, and, most of all, consistency. No
supplement, regardless of the marketing hype, can provide
you with the same results as a solid exercise and diet
program followed carefully over many weeks and months.
Always remember that our greatest successes in life almost
always come from many small individual choices over time.
The small actions on a consistent daily basis will
accumulate and have a massive effect in the future.

You do need the right knowledge, of course, but understand
that any muscle building course will require significant
effort over a sustained period of time. These courses give
you the knowledge to succeed, but you must apply them
consistently to achieve any real long-term results. Trust
me, I have long had a tendency to look for the latest
thing, whether it was in the field of fitness or something
else. Jumping from program to program will give you
nothing. Reading the first few pages of a muscle course
will do nothing by itself to build muscle, nor will
stopping your program after a week or two of strength
training. If you make a decision that you're in this for
the long haul, you have essentially guaranteed your success
from the very beginning. Any flaws can be corrected, and
any obstacles can be overcome as long as you're committed
to achieving your goals.

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