Category Archives: Fitness Goals

May 4 2012

10 Tools to Improve Your Health and Beauty

I always recommend that you make it a priority to live a healthier lifestyle each day. By doing this, you will build a healthy, lean body along the way. The quick weight loss lifestyle will ultimately leave you frustrated, unhealthy and overweight.

You know that I have always stressed health before weight loss and beauty. I have constantly stressed that it does you no good to look great if your body is a total wreck and unhealthy.

Optimal health is defined by Dr. Duke Johnson, the author of the book, The Optimal Health Revolution.

Dr. Johnson defines optimal health as:

“Optimal Health is the best health you are capable of, given your past and your genetic heritage.”

Optimal health involves making lifestyle changes to improve your:

1. health
2. fitness
3. energy levels
4. quality of life

We are living longer on this earth so quality of life is important.

The “quick weight loss lifestyle” is narrow minded when you compare it to the “optimal health lifestyle.”

Quick weight loss leads to slowed metabolism, a weaker immune system, hormonal imbalances, loss of lean mass, increased body fat, decreased energy levels, disrupted sleep patterns, short-term results and yo-yo dieting. I’ll take the optimal health option any day over quick weight loss.

Credible personal trainers teach that fat loss, weight loss, health and wellness fit together. You can’t really have one without the others. A balanced life is definitely your best chance for a quality life.

So, I wrote my new free book, “10 Tools to Help You Live Healthier,” with the idea that you need expert guidance in many areas of life.

The experts will help you with things such as:

1. How to grow and change effectively throughout life
2. Dealing with hormonal problems (men and women)
3. Nutritional advice
4. The truth about dietary supplements
5. Healthy fat loss and weight loss
6. Postural and low back problems

Make a commitment TODAY to a lifestyle of health and fitness. Without this commitment, you will eventually go back to short-term solutions like quick weight loss.

If you need to schedule that doctor’s appointment to see where your health stands, get it done soon.

Download your free book today, “10 Tools to Help You Live Healthier.”

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

Apr 10 2012

Yoga: Avoid Beginner’s Mistakes While Attaining a Well of Happiness

Expert Says Too Many Overlook Vital Mind-Body Connection

Yoga has become a popular option for alternative health management. Research has shown the practice can significantly reduce mental and physical stress, improve mood, and slow the aging process.

But some yogis believe many of the estimated 20 million U.S. students are missing the best part of the discipline – the inner happiness attainable through a healthy mind-body connection. They also worry about injuries that result when beginners tackle poses and exercises without proper guidance.

“There are several disciplines of yoga, and with its rich history, the beginner can easily get lost – or worse – injured,” says Mary Jo Ricketson, an experienced yoga practitioner and healthcare specialist, and author of Moving Meditation (www.thegoodwithin.com). A registered nurse, she also holds a master’s degree in education from Northwestern University.

“What I detail in my book is a comprehensive approach for both mind and body. This reciprocal relationship maximizes health benefits, and has exponentially positive consequences beyond the individual.”

People have been practicing yoga for thousands of years, she says. In the West, the practice has integrated with our culture leading to variations including “extreme” yoga. Ricketson warns this sort of exercise can alienate beginners, who may not be ready to “jump in the deep end first.” Without the proper training and guidance, she adds, beginners risk injuring their neck, lower back, knees and shoulders.

The most important step is getting started, Ricketson says. Here are seven things beginners – and anyone practicing yoga – should know to maximize their benefits:

1. Cardiovascular (aerobic) training: As with meditation, focused breathing is a cornerstone of mind-body training. Aerobic means “with oxygen” and aerobic movement increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, including the brain. Cardiovascular training is the single most important aspect of the physical training because it keeps the heart open and strong.

2. Core and strength training: This includes the students’ abdomen and buttocks, and the lower back region, which extends to the base of the skull. Here is where strength, stability and balance originate.

3. Flexibility training (yoga postures): Stretching simply feels good, and it reminds students to not only be more flexible in one’s body, but also one’s mind. This step allows us to move (and live) with greater ease.

4. Adequate rest: Sleep is a necessary part of life, and sufficient rest is needed for energy and equilibrium.

5. Life-giving nutrition: Making the right choices in food allows yoga students to achieve an optimal, balanced state. This includes nutritional foods consumed in moderation.

6. Family/community/church: From Epicurus to modern science, study and observation show that we find greater happiness with access to friends and family.

7. Written goals and a plan of action: Goals and stated intention act as a road map to achieving balanced well-being.

Ricketson says the above steps are just the beginning. She says tapping in to the mind-body connection also helps memory loss, attention deficit disorders, public violence – including in schools – as well as an unknown amount of needless human suffering.

“We all have within us a potential to experience optimal well-being in mind and body,” she says. “This potential, the Good Within, can be realized through the work of mind-body training. Our training is a moving meditation – a daily practice of exercises that awaken all that is Good Within.”

Mark Dilworth at Her Fitness Hut

Jan 27 2012

10 Minute Shuttle Run Workout Torches Fat

Shuttle runs are proven fat burners and are time efficient exercises—meaning you will get maximum fat-burning benefits in less time.

Don’t let your metabolism get sluggish or slow down. The number one reason that womens’ metabolisms slow down is loss of muscle mass. Save your muscle mass with short, effective interval cardio workouts like shuttles.

Muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue in your body. Your body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. So, muscle mass is your top fat-burning tool. Work hard to build and maintain your body.

Circuit weight training workouts with light weights increase growth hormone in your body. Growth hormone elevations during this type of exercise have been shown to decrease body fat and increase protein synthesis after exercise. Growth hormone helps promote tissue repair and muscle mass growth from lifting weights.

Intense interval cardio exercises such as sprints and shuttles also increase growth hormone release.

Heavy weight lifting (you won’t get bulky) will give you exercise-induced testosterone increases, which will help you build muscle mass.

“As women age, their metabolisms slow down, mainly because they are losing five or six pounds of muscle each decade starting in the mid-20s,” explains fitness expert Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., fitness research director of the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts.

“There’s no reason you can’t have the same metabolism in your 30s and 40s that you had in your 20s,” stresses Pamela Peeke, M.D., author of Fight Fat After Forty.

Use shuttle runs to add variety to your cardio workouts, burn fat faster and really lean and tone your body.

Shuttle runs are effective fat burners because of at least three mechanisms:

1. Interval cardio - Research has proven that the benefits of anaerobic exercise (like sprint interval cardio) is superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss, fitness and heart health.

The progression of your cardio exercise should be low-intensity aerobics to moderate/high-intensity aerobics to high-intensity anaerobic exercise.

2. Speed – Sprinting activates your bulkier, shapely fast twitch muscle fibers. These fast twitch muscle fibers lie dormant when you do slow-paced cardio sessions (hint).

Sprinting will really burn the fat on your butt, hips, thighs, hamstrings and lower legs. Fat will also be burned on your upper body. You don’t have to be fast, just run as fast as you can during the shuttle.

3. Sudden changes in direction – This adds more intensity to an otherwise intense form of exercise. Shuttles will improve your dynamic balance, power and coordination.

Try these 2 shuttle runs for cardio in your workouts to burn more fat (run on grass or rubber surface):

Speed Shuttle Drill or 5-10-5 Cone Drill – Place three cones in a straight line, 5 yards apart. Start in a 2-point or 3-point stance at the middle cone.

Run as fast as you can to the left cone (5 yds) and touch ground with your hand, run as fast as you can to the right cone (10 yds) and touch ground with your hand and finish running through the middle cone. That’s one repetition. Rest 1 minute between sets. Do 8-10 sets per workout session.

Speed Endurance Shuttle Run – Place cones at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 yards. Sprint to the 5 yard cone and sprint back to the start. Then, sprint to the 10 yard cone and sprint back to the start. The same would be done at the 15, 20 and 30 yard cones. That is one set. Rest for 2 minutes between sets. Do 5-6 sets.

Add shuttle runs to your exercise mix and you will start to see your body toning up faster.

Be sure and download my FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and torch body fat now!

“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named one of the 50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!