Allow me to direct your attention to the Project Swole Forums. Build muscle and lose fat by sharing your training secrets, diet strategies, progress updates, and supplement reviews; or discuss anything remotely related to health and fitness.
This will be a great way for me and all you Swole readers to talk about health and fitness topics that I just don’t have time to write individual posts about. There is also an area for posting progress pics, workout routines, or anything else you can come up with to show off your goods. My only request is this: let’s not make it a sausage fest on the pics forum… if you guys are going to post progress pics, can we please get some ladies to pose and post once a in while?
Down with the Swole Contact Form!
I want to transition from using the Swole contact form to the Swole Forums, for asking questions about health and fitness. Lord knows I get way too many e-mails on a daily basis, and I just can’t keep up with them.
The Swole contact form can still be used to ask questions about advertising, guest posts, or anything extremely private, but again I can’t guarantee a timely response.
Forum Moderators Needed
Months ago I posted about the upcoming forums and had several volunteers to help moderate. Well, now that the forums are actually up and running, I will need some moderators. So, anyone who has a couple hours a week to help answer questions and/or keep the forums clean of spam and trolls, I need YOU!
Unfortunately this is 100% volunteer work. I won’t be able to pay you for your help, but you will get a ton of kudos and I’ll help promote any projects you have going on. Leave a comment on this post to volunteer, and let me know if you have any relevant experience with moderating forums, developing websites, personal training, health topics, or nutrition advice.
That’s it! Let’s get the forums rockin’ ASAP and we’ll really have a sweet community going on at Project Swole.
I’m also going to link to the forums up on the top menu, so you don’t have to bookmark it if you don’t want. 😉
By the way, even if you registered with the blog, you’ll still have to re-register at the forums. I’m not about to try to code a bridge between phpBB and WordPress, sorry.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
Dale Bramall, Altaf Rahamatulla, Kellend Brookover, Nick Baker, and Derek Wheatley all have written testimonials about their motivation for and their journey using P90X workout DVD and their full weight loss program, which is a 90 day program with an exercise DVD, training in how to portion foods, which foods to choose, and a coaching system that has worked very well for all five of these men.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
PX90 suggests that a ninety-day weight loss regime jumped into with both feet will start you on your weight loss journey. The program implies that shocking yourself with the first 30 days of their system will get your metabolism going, and because of the results you see, you will be gung-ho for the rest of their ninety-day program.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
You may already of heard of P90X (other names: Power 90X, X90 Workout, and PX90) either by way of TV and radio commercials or word of mouth. And you may be intrigued by the numerous reports of success enjoyed by people who have shed unwanted pounds, and by the images of people who have used the P90X program to work their way to a toned and attractive physique.
The collection of articles I will be presenting delves into the potential of the P90X program and whatit has to offer you as an individual. I consider it my job to provide sufficient information in this series to answer any and all questions you might have about P90X. (more…)
This post was written back in 2008, but the poll didn’t get many votes and the post didn’t get any comments. Now that Project Swole has much more traffic and somewhat of a loyal community, I went and rewrote some of this piece and I’m re-posting it today so that we can get more comments and votes. I think it will be an interesting study into the training background of most Swole readers.
When and why did you first learn about exercising?
We all know how beneficial exercise is to maintaining a healthy body. Kids don’t usually know this and teenagers don’t usually care. Typically it is up to parents and schools to educate kids about exercise and nutrition, ’cause quite frankly they aren’t very likely to do it themselves.
I learned about exercising in junior high school when some of my friends started curling and bench pressing to build the “show muscles” for the girls. I even did some curling and bench pressing myself, but not more than a couple times a week, and I didn’t build any significant muscle mass. My real education in weight training came in high school… I’ll talk about that more below.
With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer. This P90X fit test will let you know if you are prepared to try the P90X workout, the Insanity workout, or any of the higher intensity Beach Body programs.
Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!
Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!
P90X is an intense workout program. Not everyone is able to keep up. Want to make sure you can handle P90X before you commit? Simply use the free P90X Fit Test. It only takes about half an hour to do the test.
While the majority of people will pass, and you can still use P90X if you’re determined, it is recommended that if you fail you try an easier program first. Now here is a quick summary of what to do.
The technique of using visualization in sports training has become increasingly popular in recent years. While some people may question its effectiveness, research has found visualization can be quite successful.
A study conducted by Guang Yue, a psychologist from Cleveland Clinic Foundation, found that non-professional people gained 13.5 percent muscle strength just by carrying out mental exercises. Luckily, you don’t have to earn a psychology degree to understand or practice visualization; read on to learn how you can use this technique to psych yourself up to hit the gym and set a new personal record.
How to Use Imagery and Visualization
Over the years, many professional sportsmen have made use of visualization to achieve great success. For example, world champion golfer Jack Nicklaus, states that he never fires a shot, even while in practice, until he visualizes it clearly in his head. Muhammad Ali is also known to have used varying mental exercises to help improve his performance.
It feels terrible and amazing at the same time. There isn’t much else in the world that’s as necessary and as good for you. It pumps you up, builds positive energy (not to mention muscles), and keeps you alert. Working out is nearly perfect. Nearly.
There are risks associated with exercising that can ruin the experience of staying in shape and looking your best. Let’s take a look at 5 of them.
Isn’t it obvious that we wouldn’t have to know how to recover from shin splints if we could avoid them in the first place? In order to understand how to avoid shin splints, we must first understand What Are Shin Splints. Then we can better understand how to proactively avoid them. We need to learn more about who gets shin splints, how to properly warm up and stretch the lower leg, and finally we need a method of strengthening those muscles. Assuming we can’t avoid shin splints, we will need to understand How to Treat Shin Splints.
Now, let’s examine the best ways to avoid shin splints by first understanding who is in danger of developing them.
Who Gets Shin Splints?
Athletes, weekend warriors, and even military recruits often experience shin splints, especially at the beginning of the season. Sometimes treatment can be as simple as changing to softer running surface or adding extra arch support to shoes to redistribute the stress. Active rest is often recommended by doctors as a primary treatment. This means that a runner should take up non-impact exercises such as swimming or biking, which gives the injured areas time to heal, but also maintains the cardiovascular benefits of exercise.
It is also believed that people with misalignment often develop problems such as shin splints. Misalignment to the knee, pelvis, ankle, neck, and spine, can result in abnormal posture and abnormal ROM at different joints, which causes excessive wear and tear on bones, joints, and muscles.
I want to tell you about a pretty cool new website today. If you’ve been hanging around the health and fitness website industry for a while now, you might remember HealthRanker, a health news social voting site, where popular articles are voted to prominence and end up on page 1. Well, HealthRanker was bought and destroyed a year or so ago, my attempts to make a clone called FitWire failed miserable, and now there is a new player on the scene.
Is there a hotter commodity in Hollywood today than Ryan Reynolds?
The Vancouver, Canada-born actor (b.1976) has built an impressive T.V. and movie portfolio over a two-decade career. Best known for his roles in romantic comedies (“Rom-Coms”) like “Just Friends” (2005), “Definitely Maybe” (2008), and the blockbuster “The Proposal” (2009), Reynolds has also quietly built an impressive action hero portfolio.
Many of us recall his portrayal of Hannibal King in “Blade: Trinity” (2004), where his chiseled “six-pack” physique was prominently featured. More recently, Ryan played the swordsman-mercenary Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) opposite Hugh Jackman, and is slated for the title role in Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ “Green Lantern“, due out in summer 2011.
Other personal accomplishments include being named People Magazine’s “Sexist Man Alive” for 2010, and the new face for Hugo Boss fragrances.
Ryan Reynolds also happens to be married to actor Scarlett Johansson, GQ’s 2010 “Babe of the Year”.
Attention men! This just in: you don’t need to gain 30 pounds of muscle in order for women to find you attractive.
I found this post from back in the year 2000 about a Harvard study in which college-aged men were asked to pick their ideal body from a group of images. Most men chose the body with 30 pounds more muscle mass than what they currently had.
A group of college females were then asked to choose which of the body images they were most attracted to. The majority of the women picked a body with 15-30 pounds less muscle than the men picked.
Today’s guest post was written by Matt Paley, the founder and CEO of Share It Fitness, which provides us with a revolutionary new approach to health and fitness. The old model of paying a trainer, or yoga instructor, or golf pro, or you name it, 50, 60, 70 dollars an hour to simply count or re-use a generic workout routine on you isn’t effective nor cost-efficient. What if you could have a dedicated professional with you, not just a few hours a week, but EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE. Motivating, guiding, advising, and supporting you in all your fitness needs. The time has come for a change in the way fitness, health, and sport instruction is delivered.
ShareItFitness.com is the answer. The ShareItFitness blog, has a wide range of health and fitness news. The information found on the blog is only going to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what ShareItFitness will be able to offer. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for additional fitness tips. Thanks for checking us out and keep on living well.
Breaking Down the American Diet
While not a “diet” in the sense you may be thinking, the American Diet is one that millions of people follow, mostly unaware, for the majority of their lives. The bad part is, this easily followed “diet” isn’t doing us any good. If anything, it’s contribution to the high rates of obesity and mortality that we are experiencing in this country.
The American Diet has large amounts of sodium, sugar, simple carbs, and bad fats, which include the worst offender, trans fat. We consume these by the plateful almost every time we go out to eat. Unfortunately as Americans, we eat out a lot.
These four things are the major barriers that stand between us and a long, healthy life. If we can learn how to eat less of these bad nutrients, and more of the healthy ones, we will unlock the largest component to a healthy lifestyle. This section is going to break down the health consequences of each of the above offenders so you may have a more practical idea of what’ s going on inside your body. (more…)
72 million adults are considered obese (defined by the BMI being over 30)
84.8 million adults have no leisure-time physical activity
total obesity-related health care costs are estimated at $147 billion
Those are some frustrating numbers.
Given those ridiculous health care costs, and all the other money that you have to shell out food, clothing, fad weight loss gimmicks, etc… just how much does it cost annually for the average person to be obese?
A recent study conducted by George Washington University researchers found that the annual cost of being overweight is $8,365 for men and $6,518 for women with an obesity-related shortened life span factored in.
Today’s guest post is by Clint Nielsen. He has 10 years of experience with fitness and nutrition. Clint runs a no-nonsense health and fitness blog over at Crude Fitness which is all about helping others achieve their fitness goals without the gimmicks currently being promoted in the fitness industry. Check it out.
Every time I set foot in the gym, I see people that haven’t the slightest clue as to why they are there, nor what they should be doing.
I often see them struggling with weights that are way too heavy or i find gym-goers that are training with the intensity of a sloth on Valium.
I’m not trying to be sexist here by any means, as these traits often apply to both genders.
Without further hesitation, here are the Top 5 things women do that hinder their progress in the gym: (more…)
I know some of you out there work 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. I know some of you also work 14,16,18 hour days. Hell, I’ve put in 36 hours straight writing computer code day and night to meet a deadline before. We all do it: we work too much!
Experts are finding out now that the best way to increase productivity, is to work less. That’s right, people who work 35-40 hours a week get the most out of their time. After the first 40 hours efficiency, speed, and quality all begin to deteriorate.
Companies that limit their employees’ working hours to 35 a week, typically have to employ less Quality Assurance (QA) testers, because their employees make far fewer mistakes. That is a multi-directional savings plan – save your employees health and save money by getting rid of half your QA staff (or just don’t hire them to begin with).
There are plenty of signs be aware of when it comes to your body’s signals about pushing yourself too far. Over training your body will cause you to plateau or worse – regress.
The most common sign of overtraining is the total loss of motivation to train, and exhaustion mixed with some the symptoms listed below. (more…)
In today’s “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” category, I would like you to read about how bullies target obese kids.
Um… no kidding, Sherlock.
I was bullied as a kid.
From 6th to 9th grade I really didn’t fit in anywhere. I was chubby, had acne, wore glasses, and I wasn’t any good in gym class. They called me names, drew nasty pictures of me, popular girls prank called me, and jocks punched me.
Looking back, I was probably one of the top 10 least popular kids in my class of 120 or so. It wasn’t any fun.
Bullying causes pain, anger, and resentment. So often in today’s society, we see so many acts of bullying the end in violence. Granted, I didn’t knife anyone, shoot anyone, or beat anyone up over it… but some kids do.
We need to educate our children and teach them how to avoid bullies, as well as how to avoid becoming a bully.
More than ever, victims of bullying nowadays tend to either take action against their perpetrators or simply end their own life. Those who don’t take action will go through life hating their junior high or high school peers, dreaming of revenge. You might not believe me if it never happened to do, but trust me: it’s true.
If you’re one of many who work in an office and find yourself seated at a desk for prolonged periods of time, then you’re asking for trouble. The mass office working culture has led to more sedentary lifestyles.
Your body is designed for movement, so sitting for long hours at a time doesn’t do your body any favors. It’s therefore vital that you find ways to move around in order to keep the circulation in your body moving and to stave off unwanted fat or weight that may well be creeping up. Staying stationery for long periods can also lead to backache, stiffness and headaches.
If you don’t even get up and move around every so often you’ll gradually begin to feel uncomfortable, your energy level’s decline, and you’ll probably feel lethargic and possibly begin to lack concentration resulting in below par productivity.
Office exercises isn’t a total replacement of your regular exercise routine but it will help to keep you active, burn off the excesses of the day and hopefully give you the motivation to partake in regular exercise to keep your body trim and healthy.