GRIPAD ® Blog

A great body, defined muscles, and peak athletic performance aren’t created by workouts alone. Of course the gym can offer plenty of what you need to stay in top shape, from weights to motivation to professional instruction. But a tight body doesn’t just come from cardio and resistance training— it also comes from a healthy lifestyle. To function at your best, you’ll need plenty of water and at least six hours of sleep every night. You’ll also need to pay attention to what you eat.

A nutritionist or trainer can help you put together a complete diet plan that supports your workout goals, but in the meantime, you’ll gain plenty of ground by keeping these simple diet tips in mind.

Nutrition Tips for Athletes

1. Eat breakfast! No matter what the day brings, start your morning with food. If you can, choose whole grains, fruit, and a lean protein like peanut butter. Yogurt also works well, and so does a serving of eggs or some whole grain toast with honey. Just eat. And drink coffee. A simple glass of juice isn’t enough, but it helps. Skip anything with corn syrup on the ingredient list.
2. Don’t be afraid to snack throughout the day, but don’t snack mindlessly. It’s actually better to eat several small meals throughout the day then three big heaping plates with nothing in between.
3. Don’t drink soda. Reach for water instead. Or milk. Or juice. Or a sports drink. Or anything at all really. Just leave the soft drinks alone.
4. Protein is important, but make sure you’re choosing the right proteins. Go lean and opt for turkey, chicken, and fish. Try to eat at least three servings of fish per week, like wild caught salmon. And load up on almonds and other healthy nuts and legumes. Skip the beef and pork.
5. If you’re about to head into a strenuous activity that will last more than two hours, load up on carbs and pasta beforehand to build your glycogen reserves. If not, moderate carbs are fine, just make sure you select whole grains when you can.

When you head into the resistance-training portion of your workout routine, do you do so with long- term goals in mind? If you’re lifting for maintenance or just trying to keep your body healthy, that’s great. But if you’re working your way toward specific goals, these goals should play a strong role in your approach to lifting, including your weight, reps, diet, and technique.

Mass and Strength: What are the Benefits One versus The Other?

Lifting for mass means building the size of your arms and legs without worrying much about making them stronger or improving your athletic performance. Big muscles are like a fashion accessory—They stand out, they change the way your clothes fit, and they can help you gain an edge in competitive body building. If you want a muscular look, you can definitely get it, but you won’t get there very fast if you choose moves and techniques that are designed for strength.

On the other hand, strength and performance don’t always translate into huge bulky muscles. In fact, the opposite may be true depending on your unique physiology. Choose this path if you want powerful muscles and are fine with a look that’s lean and toned.

Building Strength

To build strength in your chosen area, the first move will be finding the right guide. A knowledgeable coach or mentor can keep your training regimen—which may be complex—on track. Don’t just throw yourself into new moves on your own. Consult the internet or talk to someone who excels in your chosen sport.

Meanwhile, you’ll be lifting with a focus on reps and technique, not weight. You’ll usually be lifting lighter and longer than your bulked-out counterparts. Avoid questionable supplements, and eat plenty of chicken, fish, leafy green vegetables, and plant proteins like nuts and legumes.

Building Mass

To build volume and mass, use heavier weights and lower reps. Have your coach or mentor walk you through the drop-down or burn-down method, which will mean lifting until you experience muscle failure. This will contribute to the hypertrophy, or miniscule tissue damage, that builds volume. Be safe—lifting for mass often means lifting weights outside your comfort zone, so make sure you lift with a spotter.

Do your workout goals include building strength and/or adding muscle mass? If so, you’re probably spending plenty of time on resistance training and lifting heavier weights in shorter reps. But there are also some of steps you can take outside the gym that can support your training goals and help you build the powerful guns you’re looking for.

For example, let’s talk about food. Try adding these proven muscle-builders to your diet every day and see what happens.

Muscle Building Foods: Lean meats

Lean meats provide an excellent source of healthy, low calorie protein. But take note: by “lean meat,” we mean chicken, turkey, and fish (especially wild caught salmon). We don’t mean beef or pork, which can add excess unhealthy fats and set your progress back. When you’re hungry for a burger or chili, choose ground turkey instead of beef. And eat a serving of fresh fish at least three times a week.

Muscle Building Foods: Coffee

Coffee is one of the most misunderstood and also highly researched foods in the world. Even though we don’t know everything about how it works, coffee appears to increase endurance, especially during anaerobic activities like lifting and short-distance running. This means that after a cup or two, we can complete more reps. So the benefits are indirect, but clear.

Muscle Building Foods: Eggs

Eggs are packed with vitamin B12, B6, Iron, phosphorus, and choline, which are all essential to strong muscles and connective tissue. But don’t skip the yolks. That’s where the most powerful benefits lie.

Muscle Building Foods: Nuts and Legumes, Especially Almonds

A handful of almonds a day will help you stock up on vitamin E, and vitamin E contains powerful antioxidants that help damaged muscle tissues heal after intense workouts. The vitamins and phytonutrients in almonds are also great for your brain.

Have you ever wondered if some of your aches and pains may actually be caused by your workout? If you’re relying on any of these dangerous moves, you might be right.

The Incorrect Bench Press

When you complete a bench press, keep your arms close and tight to your body. As you lift the bar, your forearms should be rising straight up and back down. Remember, the bench press is not an exercise for the shoulders, and it isn’t about the back; it’s designed to target the pecs, arms and chest. An out-of-control bench press that taxes the back and shoulders will be less effective, and can cause serious damage to your joints.

The Lat Pull-Down

If you’re doing lat pull-downs and bringing the bar down behind your neck, stop. This places too much strain on your neck and upper spine. This move can also place questionable pressure on your shoulder joints, which can lead to rotator cuff problems. If you must do lat pull-downs at all, bring the bar down in front of your neck, and make sure you keep your back slightly arched in a natural way. If your back is arching unnaturally, reduce the amount of weight you’re lifting.

The Kettle Bell Swing

To complete this move properly, you’ll need to hinge your hip, keep your feet at shoulder width, and bend at the waist without bending your lower back. This is a precise set of instructions, amounting to a skill that’s best perfected with trained supervision. If you don’t have that supervision, skip this move for now. Your back will thank you.

The Squat with Knees Forward

Squats can be an excellent move for balance, tone and full body conditioning, but never let your knees creep further forward than your toes. This isn’t always easy, especially for those with long torsos or comparatively short legs. If you’re having trouble keeping those knees in line, that means you’re placing undesirable strain on your back. Try another move that provides the same benefits.

The Upright Row

Shoulders that have been rotated inward should not be elevated. Our rotator cuffs aren’t designed to work this way, and the benefits of this move are so limited (if they exist at all), that there no harm in letting it go altogether.

The summer is only a few months away, and if you’d like to strut your stuff on the beach this year, now is the time to start planning ahead. There are some things about our bodies that we can’t change, and it’s best to make peace with those sooner rather than later. But there are a few things that we can exercise (at least a little bit) of control over. Let’s start with these four.

1. Tone

   If you already work out at least three times a week, then you’re on the right track. If not, it’s time to get started. Find a convenient 10-15 minutes of each day and occupy those minutes with activities that elevate your heart rate, cause sweating, and cause a burning sensation in your muscles. Try a run followed by a brief session of resistance training and bodyweight exercise like crunches and push-ups.

2. Stretching

   Stretching for at least five minutes every day elevates circulation and increases balance, flexibility, and posture. Formal yoga instruction can help, but even a little bit of self-guided stretching can provide a streamlined profile, some extra confidence and an improved sense of well-being.

3. Nutrition

   Start with three servings of green vegetables a day. At least. Add some fruit, whole grain carbs and lean proteins like chicken and fish. Say no thanks to beef and pork, and skip the sugary soft drinks.

4. Lighten up

   When you’re working out to improve your performance in a specific sport, that’s one thing. When your goals include attracting glances, that’s another. In addition to your workout, pay some attention to stress management and get at least six hours of sleep every night. And lighten up. Laugh at least a few times a day. Look for the best in everyone you speak to. This can have a remarkable effect on your skin tone, posture, and overall impression.

It’s no secret that heavy lifting and the drop-down method build muscle mass, and that increased muscle mass can interfere with flexibility and range of motion. Muscle mass also doesn’t always equate to strength. As professional body-builders know, increased mass results from hypertrophy, or the microscopic tearing and scarring of overtaxed muscle fibers, and hypertrophy may have little to do with increases in strength and conditioning.

So how can we round out a lifting regimen with moves that will build real strength, increase our flexibility, improve blood flow, and elevate the focus and concentration that contribute to athletic performance? Yoga is a great place to start.

Yoga and Athletic Performance

Yoga uses basic principles of stretching combined with additional elements that support breathing and circulation. And most yoga poses also help us build and strengthen the “rails”, the minuscule muscle interactions that are often unconscious and contribute to subtle elements of performance like balance and coordination.

But since adding yoga to your workout routine comes with very little cost and no risk, the best way to examine its benefits is to simply start doing it. Find an excellent yoga instructor in your area, or attend the classes that may be offered at your gym. If you can’t find a yoga resource near you, search the internet for descriptions of basic poses and stretches. The quality of yoga instruction matters—an excellent teacher can help you obtain the benefits of a yoga habit faster. But it’s perfectly okay to strike out on your own.

Recognize that yoga requires discipline, and that it should be done along with, not in place of, your regular training routine. But after a few sessions, you’ll recognize how great your body feels after 30 minutes to an hour of yoga instruction. And it won’t be long before you see the effect of these sessions on your performance.

Workout experts once viewed caffeine with a degree of skepticism, possibly because coffee and soda are known to make some people nervous and jittery, and nervous jitters are not usually associated with calm, focused performance during high-intensity sporting events. Caffeine also seems to speed up the resting heart rate, which doesn’t always benefit athletes during training or on the field. But many of these concerns have been dismissed, both by careful research and by anecdotal evidence of the positive impact of caffeine on athletic performance.

Caffeine and Endurance

It seems that caffeine doesn’t improve oxygen capacity directly, but it does allow athletes to train longer and with greater power output. Caffeine can increase speed, endurance and resistance to fatigue during extended cardio activities like races, and its effects are strongly felt at levels far below accepted standards for permissible ergogenic aids (performance enhancing substances). The benefits of caffeine typically last anywhere from 1 minute to 2 hours.

There also don’t seem to be many negatives associated with caffeine use, though its effects on strength training are less clearly documented and there’s still a lot to be learned about this mysterious substance and its impact on our overall health.

Caffeine, Exercise and Skin Cancer

Most of us have heard that exercise can contribute to disease prevention and may ward off several different types of cancer. But new studies show an interesting twist involving caffeine. It seems that exposure to both caffeine and regular exercise can help prevent harmful melanomas better than either influence can on its own. Mice exposed to both caffeine and exercise seem to fair better and show greater skin cancer resistance then mice exposed only to one or the other. Researchers are still not entirely certain why this connection exists, but in the meantime, it seems like there’s no need to pass up that pre-workout cup of coffee.

For generations, humans have noticed that music often changes the experience of physical exertion. If you’ve ever used teamwork to haul a heavy fishnet or raise a sail (which most of us probably haven’t), you may have witnessed the effects of singing on the collective strength of many pairs of arms. In a more modern world, scientific fascination with music and exercise first started to appear in the 1970s when aerobics classes set to music were becoming popular.

When researchers began investigating the impact of music on motivation and fatigue, they divided their findings into five interesting categories. It seems that music keeps us moving by supporting dissociation, arousal regulation, flow, synchronization, and the acquisition of motor skills.

These are specific terms related to brain function, but in summary, music helps us block out sensations associated with fatigue. It also gives our minds something to focus on that channels our attention away from our bodies. Higher beats per minute, or BPM, in the music we choose also seems to boost our performance, primarily during cardio exercises. High BPM has a reduced effect on stretching and resistance training.

Choosing Music: Considerations

To make the most of your music-exercise pairing, try to choose songs with a tone and tempo that match your chosen activity. Since many of the benefits of music happen as endorphins are released by our listening brains, it’s a good idea to choose music that feels happy.

If you’re leading a class or exercising in a public setting, make sure your music choice is inclusive and appealing to everyone who will be subjected to it. If you’ll be listening to your choices alone, make sure earbuds are permitted during your activity (they’re forbidden in some race and marathon settings). And keep the volume low—don’t isolate yourself from what’s happening around you.

No matter what your overall workout goals may be (improved sports performance, better bone strength, etc.) it’s a good idea to focus your resistance training now and then on specific areas of the body that might otherwise be neglected, especially if your workout is heavy on cardio or if you’ve fallen into a steady routine and you tend to do the same moves every day.

This week, try spending at least one 30 minute session on moves that target your arms and back. Why? Here are a few quick benefits to toning and these areas:

1. The back is vulnerable to injury, especially if we engage in high intensity cardio moves or high impact sports. A strong back means well-protected tendons and vertebrae in the event of a sudden or unnatural motion.
2. The core, or the muscles of the back and torso, are involved in almost every move we make, including every sport and every daily activity. So the stronger they become, the more efficient and effective our training will be in other areas.
3. The upper body, arms and back are often overlooked by those who engage in extreme cardio or endurance related activities. But this can compromise training and even lead to health problems. So actively target the arms and back to keep your muscles balanced and your workout goals on track.

Moves that Target the Arms and Back

Planks: Using a suspension band secured from an anchor point above your head, grip the handles and lean into the bands, push-up style. The steeper your lean, the more intense your workout.

Flies and Reverse Flies: Now bend your elbows until your forearms are nearly parallel to the floor. Then straighten your arms out again.  You should feel strong resistance in your arms and back. Try this move with your arms close together in front of you, then try spreading them to the sides.

Body weight exercises: Push-ups, modified pushups and dips are all great ways to strengthen your core, back and arms. Find a spot on the floor or a sturdy set of parallel bars and get started.

When we push ourselves physically, we sweat and respire more vigorously, and the moisture we lose through these outlets must be replaced at a rate that keeps place with our activity level. Thirst is a simple indicator that we need moisture, but thirst doesn’t tell us everything about what we’ve lost, and sometimes thirst doesn’t activate at an intensity level that truly reflects our body’s needs. We’ve all had coaches, trainers, and summer camp counselors remind us that “just because you don’t feel thirsty doesn’t mean you’re hydrated”. By the same token, just because you’re drinking doesn’t mean your body is getting the hydration and replenishment it needs. So how much hydration is enough? And should that hydration come in the form of sports drinks, or is plain water enough?

Water or Sports Drinks?

A sedentary lifestyle requires between 6 and 8 glasses of water per day. This goes up as you begin to exercise and your sweat and respiration become more intense.

During moderate exercise lasting one hour or less, your muscles burn primarily fat as fuel. Fat converts to glucose which allows muscles to stay active. After a while, muscles start drawing glucose from other sources, and fat burning gives way to carbohydrate burning. At this point, your body doesn’t just need moisture to stay active, it also needs to replenish lost carbohydrates and electrolytes (mostly potassium and sodium).

So if your workout lasts for less than an hour, water is a free, clean, healthy, and perfectly adequate form of hydration. It’s unprocessed, it’s safe, and it contains no calories.

If your workout exceeds an hour and is especially intense, your performance will benefit from a few extra carbohydrates to replace the ones you’ve lost. So you’ll want to choose a drink with a little bit of extra sugar and salt. Commercial sports drinks are fine, but check the label, since some of these contain high fructose corn syrup, which is not what you need. You can also add a little splash of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar and salt to pure water to gain all the benefits of most sports drinks.

We’ve all been exposed to tips about how to stay healthy and limit the spread of viruses and germs during cold and flu season. Make sure you sneeze and cough into the crook of your arm, not into the room. Make sure you wash your hands before handling food. Limit your contact with contaminated surfaces. And of course, don’t come into work when you’re clearly ill. Nobody appreciates those kinds of heroics. But there are a few tips that specifically apply to the gym environment, tips that can help you stay healthy and keep others safe from the spread of harmful germs.

Keep these in mind and stay healthy during the coming spring:

1. There’s no need for paranoia, but one of the fastest ways to spread germs is by touching surfaces that have been touched by many other people. And the gym is full of these. Every barbell, handle, and piece of equipment has certainly come in contact with multiple strains of cold and flu virus by the time you arrive on the scene. So protect your hands. Wear your Gripads instead of handling equipment directly.
2. Keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer in your gym bag and make use of it now and then as you move from one piece of equipment to the next. It only takes a few seconds to apply, and most sanitizers are alcohol based, so they kill both viruses and bacteria.
3. Wipe down your equipment to clear away your sweat after you use it. This goes without saying.
4. Sharing a bottle of water is as friendly and supportive as it is germy, but you don’t have to do it if everybody thinks ahead and nobody runs out.
5. Don’t let fear of colds keep you out of the gym. Exercise is a vital part of strong immunity. So to stay healthy, eat a balanced diet with plenty of vitamin c, get adequate sleep, and don’t be afraid of a few germs at the gym. Pack your Gripads, keep your hands clean, and get in there.

Body weight workouts are built around exercises that use our own body weight to create resistance. These include any exercise that challenges our muscles and our sense of balance against conflicting muscle groups, stationary objects, and constants like gravity. We’re engaging in body weight exercises every time we complete a simple move like a sit-up, push-up, or dip.

Advantages of Body Weight Workouts

Using your own body weight as your gym equipment can be convenient and fun. Body weight workouts are simple, portable and cheap, and they can be done anywhere, from a backyard to an office to a hotel room while traveling.

Floors are all around us, walls are everywhere, and gravity is free. But before you start relying exclusively on body weight exercises, remember that all workout routines should be just one component of a healthy lifestyle. Don’t just trust the floor and your own body to keep you fit—you’ll also need plenty of sleep, adequate stress management, and a healthy diet. You should also bear some of the following considerations in mind.

Body Weight Workout Considerations

Body weight exercises offer plenty of resistance as long as your strength-to-body weight ratio stays low. But as you become stronger, pound for pound, you’ll need to find ways to increase leverage and place your muscles at a greater mechanical disadvantage to get more out of your body weight workout. This is especially true for strong, lighter weight athletes like gymnasts.

Clothing and gear can play an important role in a good body weight workout. Since many of these moves involve parallel bars and floor work, hand protection will be key. In general, clothing for a body weight workout should be loose enough to allow a full range of motion but tight enough not to get in your way.

Also, you’ll need to pay attention to safety.  Body weight exercises tend to be unstructured, so monitor your moves and stop doing something if you feel off balance or experience pain in your back, neck or joints.

When we talk about muscles of the chest, we’re usually referring to the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, the muscles located between the shoulders and just below the collarbone. But a big chest means more than just defined pecs; it also means a strong upper torso, and strong lats, shoulders, and deltoids. All of these muscle groups contribute to volume and definition in the chest area, and a strong chest works like a strong core in that it supports training, agility and performance in almost every other area of the body.

A Few Notes On Your Chest Workout

Before you begin blasting the chest with dips, pushups, and bench presses, remember that building a strong chest takes patience. Many of the best chest exercises also rely heavily on body weight, so if you have a heavier body, you’ll get more resistance and sometimes faster results. Those with smaller bodies will need to do more reps or find other ways to add tension.

Pushups and Modified Pushups

For a standard pushup, lie face down on the floor and place your body weight on your palms. Push yourself up away from the floor with your weight on your palms and your toes. Keep your body straight like a plank. This exercise can help strengthen you pecs, but it can also place resistance on your arms and shoulders. So to keep focus on the chest area, try modifying the move as follows:

When you’re at the lowest point of the pushup, glide your body forward past your planted hands. Walk your toes forward by just a few steps. As you push yourself up from the ground, cheat on the pushup a bit by raising your hips toward the ceiling.

Dips and Bench Presses

To do a dip, center your weight on your arms above two parallel bars. Lower yourself until your elbows almost reach the bars. Then push yourself back up.

To complete a bench press, you’ll need a weight bench, a barbell and a spotter. Lying on your back, grip the bar and push it away from you toward the ceiling. Make sure your Gripads are in place so you can maintain a firm non-slip grip on the bar.

In 2005, Loren Cordain and Joel Friel published a book called “The Paleo Diet for Athletes”, a sports-specific version of an earlier book by Cordain called “The Paleo Diet”.

These books have generated some buzz in the workout community and gathered a broad following of supporters, critics, and curious athletes willing to investigate any reasonable theory that might help them improve their overall health or their performance on the field.

What is The Paleo Diet?

Cordain and Friel suggest that the human digestive system hasn’t changed or evolved much over the last 2.5 million years, but by comparison, our standard diets have changed considerably. Most of these dietary changes have happened over the past 200 years, and most the “new” foods we now eat have arisen due to convenience and availability, not nutritional value.

During the paleolithic era (the stone age), our bodies evolved to digest unprocessed fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. We weren’t exposed and aren’t adapted to grains like wheat, corn and rice or the foods derived from them like bread and noodles. At this point, we eat so many of these processed grains that they’re edging out the vital phytonutrients that we would otherwise be deriving from vegetables and fruits.

Recommendations of the Paleo Diet

According to Friel and Cordain, we’re better off shifting our eating habits back to fruits, vegetables and lean meats like poultry and fish. Meanwhile, we should steer clear of fatty red meats and anything that we didn’t have access to during paleolithic times, including processed, grain-based carbohydrates and dairy products.

Does the Paleo diet have merit? Most of the evidence in either direction seems to be anecdotal, but there have been very few reported health problems or harm associated with these recommendations. So if you’re curious, go ahead and adopt this plan while monitoring your health and performance carefully for results. If the Paleo diet causes problems or interferes with your lifestyle, by all means stop. But in the meantime, feel free to keep an open mind.

Regular workout devotees sometimes wake up feeling under the weather and wonder if it might be a good idea to skip the exercise plans they had scheduled for the day. Popular wisdom and most of the internet offer the same generic answer to this question: Let your body be your guide. If you feel like you should work out, do so. If not, don’t.

But this isn’t really an answer. Especially since most people who are stumped by this question are athletes and workout regulars who embrace a philosophy that encourages pushing through pain. When is it time to push through pain and when is it time to scale back? We wouldn’t ask if we already knew the answer. Sometimes our bodies can’t tell us and we need some real advice.

So try these guidelines the next time you’re wondering if it’s a good idea to get out of bed and head for the gym when you’re sick.

Working Out While Sick: Considerations

1. Do you have a fever or just a cold? If you have a cold, your symptoms will usually be localized above your neck. You’ll have a runny nose, itchy eyes, and maybe some head congestion. If your symptoms are all in your head, so to speak, a run or a round of resistance training may actually be a good idea, since it might break up some of your congestion for a while and make breathing a little easier. Scale back your workout slightly, but don’t skip it altogether.
2. If you have a fever, skip the workout. The gym will be waiting for you when you recover.
3. If you don’t have a fever, but you’re experiencing symptoms below the neck, like a stomachache, nausea, or body aches, make a plan to get back to the gym on the following day. One day of missed training won’t undermine your workout goals, and if your attempt to “power through” results in a miserable experience, you may be incrementally demotivating yourself. Keep your workout process fun…Don’t let it turn into a grind.

Plenty of anecdotal evidence exists to support the claim that exercise can help reduce anxiety and some forms of depression. Those of us who have been working out for years don’t need to be told that exercise feels great, and most of us have seen how a good workout can put the challenges of a difficult day into perspective.

But careful scientific studies (like this one: http://www.fitness.gov/mentalhealth.htm) provide more proof of what we already know about exercise and mental health. Here are a few key take-home messages:

1. All forms of exercise offer a great way to reduce feelings of anxiety and gloom. The reasons are partly physical, since a workout stimulates blood flow and oxygen delivery to cells. But they’re also emotional, since working out offers a change of perspective, a chance to step out of our regular routine, and a healthy distraction as we shift gears from one set of challenges (mental or emotional) to another (physical).
2. Weight training is great for mood and mental health, but aerobic activity may offer even more pronounced benefits. To get the most out your workout, make sure you blend cardio exercises with weight training and resistance moves.
3. Exercise may have bigger mood boosting effects for those who face bigger challenges. In other words, the positive benefits increase among those with higher anxiety at the starting point.
4. Sleep, exercise and mental health go hand in hand.  You can get the benefits of any two, but you won’t fully get where you need to be without the third. To make the most of your workout, get plenty of sleep. To boost your mental health and feelings of well-being, get plenty of sleep and plenty of workout time. Don’t cut corners. Take care of yourself in all three of these areas so you can keep your life on track and take care of those who depend on you.

A sleek, tight midsection and a set of chiseled six pack abs look great on anyone, and a strong core can support workouts designed to target almost every other area of the body. Not only can tight abs help you look great and feel great, they can improve your posture and help your back stay strong and injury-resistant.

Lean abs can also have a positive impact on overall health, since stomach fat isn’t quite like other forms of fat. While the subcutaneous fat that lies elsewhere on the body is designed to store fuel and not much else, the fat cells of the stomach generate a variety of hormone and chemical signals that affect the function of the vital organs right next to them. This can mean trouble, especially for the liver, which controls insulin resistance. Too much abdominal fat can contribute to insulin related problems including metabolic disease and diabetes.

So look out, Potbelly! It’s time to trim down that torso once and for all. Here are few tips to keep in mind as you get to work:

1. Crunches are a great place to start, but make sure you vary your moves in order to maintain balanced muscle development and prevent boredom. Try planks, scissor kicks, and bicycles. When you’re ready, head for the dip bar and pull your knees up to your chest while your body is suspended above the ground.

2. Be persistent and patient. Abdominal fat can be stubborn. Remember that while thousands of crunches will tone your ab muscles, fat loss can’t be targeted to specific areas of the body. When fat comes off, it comes off according to the body’s own mysterious plan. So bring your Gripads to the gym and don’t neglect the cardio and weight training elements of your workout routine.

3. Most ab workout moves depend on the body’s own weight and gravity to create resistance, so as you get stronger, ab exercises become easier. Don’t plateau; instead, keep increasing your reps and finding ways to ad resistance to your moves.

Lifting too much weight and lifting improperly are two of the primary causes of back injury, from pulled muscles to slipped and ruptured disks. Safe lifting and proper biomechanics go hand in hand. But safe lifting also involves a few other considerations that you should keep in mind as you approach your weightlifting workout:

1. If you have a history of back problems or have sustained a past injury to your neck or spine, don’t let your enthusiasm cloud your judgment. It’s great to feel motivated and competitive, but stay in control of your destiny. Talk to your doctor before you begin a lifting plan or make any changes to your existing plan, even insignificant changes. And of course, notify your personal trainer of your back history before you place your workout routine in his or her hands.
2. Pay attention to your body and listen to its signals. Pain is a natural component of any serious workout, but only certain kinds of pain and only under certain circumstances. Feeling a burn in your targeted muscle area is great. A burn in your joints, neck or spine? Not great. If you feel pain in these areas, stop doing your current move. Ask your trainer about it, and if you don’t have a trainer, double-check your technique– something might be off.
3. Don’t use gear you can’t trust. Make sure your no-slip Gripads are securely in place before you lift, and if you’ve had problems with a specific weight machine or a certain move in the past, don’t keep putting it to the test. Just move onto something else.
4. Don’t lift heavy weights without a spotter. And don’t put yourself in a position in which you have to choose between dropping a weight and injuring yourself. Be ready to drop the weight.

There’s no point denying it: You’ve been putting off exercise, and now that you’re finally ready to pull on your workout gear and hit the gym, you know you’re doing it because you have to. You can’t put a price on your health, so you’re ready to do what it takes to keep your body strong and in motion. You’re eating nutritious foods, you’re going to the dentist on a regular basis, and you’re working out. For real this time.

But that sounds like a bit of a drag. There has to be a better form of motivation that sheer willpower or the fear of an early grave. Luckily for you…there is! If you haven’t found a sport or physical activity that you feel passionate about, now is the time. Let the search begin.

Finding an Activity that Captures Your Heart (and Keeps it Pumping)

1. First, ask yourself a few questions. Are you a team player? Or are you the competitive type? Do you become the competitive type when you’re challenged? Some people are bored to tears by the idea of a five mile run…that is, until you place another runner right next to them. Some can’t imagine tossing a ball into a hoop for hours on end. But if you surround them with a supportive team that depends on them, everything changes.
2. Reach outside your bubble. Chances are, if you haven’t found your one true sport, it’s because you haven’t been exposed to it yet. There are martial arts courses, perhaps on your very block, that you may never have heard of. Get out and find them. Most schools and dojos offer a free lesson for those who want to experiment before making a commitment.  Meanwhile, when’s the last time you went snowboarding? Or diving? Or tried rhythm gymnastics? Never? Fix that.
3. Keep an open mind. Sometimes it takes one magical, crystallizing moment to realize we’ve found our passion. Often, this moment happens when we see an experienced practitioner showing off his or her skills. If you find yourself thinking “I wish I could do that!” Then your moment has arrived. Sign up, join a team, and start practicing.

Children and teenagers who are still growing often want to improve their athletic performance, tighten and tone their bodies so they look better, and improve their strength. Should parents and coaches encourage them to lift weights? The answer is almost always yes… but only within certain limits. As your child starts picking up weights and leaning toward lifting equipment, you’ll need to keep these considerations in mind:

1. First, there’s a big difference between resistance training and competitive weightlifting, or body building. Light resistance training is a positive move in almost every way (read on), but intense weightlifting should be skipped. Heavy weights, lifting to failure, and overtaxing a child’s muscles can damage her growing tendons and the still-developing areas of her bones called growth plates. Put off the intense lifting for a few more years, and focus instead on proper technique, light resistance, and controlled movements.
2. That being said, mild resistance training is generally great for kids. A regular routine of cardiovascular exercise supplemented by controlled resistance training can strengthen muscles and bones and improve athletic performance in almost every sport. It can also protect a child’s joints and muscles from sports-related injuries.
3. Resistance training offers long-term lifestyle benefits as well. Children who engage in mild lifting workouts tend to have an easier time controlling their weight later in life. They also have healthier blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and they demonstrate improved confidence and self-esteem.
4. Children can safely begin resistance training around the age of 7 or 8, as long as they’re mature enough to control their movements and know the difference between mild resistance and bulking up. If you aren’t sure your child is ready, or if he has a health issue, talk to your doctor before he begins.