The Health Gazette

I used to think that a good leg workout necessitated heavy duty equipment like a squat sled and a calf press machine. Then I discovered that a great leg workout can be had at home, or anywhere for that matter, without any specialized equipment at all.

Day #3 on Body-for-Life calls for weight training for the lower body (abdominals and legs) and can be easily done at home. I've included the Progress Report with this blog for your convenience. Following are the exercises I suggest you try on day #3 and how you can use common household items to add a little variety to each of them.

The best way to start these exercises is with your own body weight. You can add extra weight to challenge yourself as you progress and gain more muscle.

Dumbell Squats: A great way to make sure you keep proper form on this exercise is to hold a broomstick across your shoulders. Once you get the form down and can do a whole series easily, you should add weight by holding canned goods in each hand or even milk jugs with water added for weight.

Leg Press: Lie on your back and balance a kitchen chair on the soles of your feet for this one. Keep the chair balanced by holding on to the front legs. The act of balancing the chair will call in all your muscles and make this exercise very effective. If you really want a challenge, have a child lie across the soles of your feet and hold their hands. Not only will you have to lift the extra weight but you'll need to balance a squirming kid too! (Remember safety and do this on a mattress if you're pressing a kid in the air!)

Dumbell Lunges: Until you've got the proper form down, feel free to keep one hand on the back of a kitchen chair or a doorknob to keep your balance on this exercise. Once you have the form down and need a challenge, use canned goods in each hand for added weight.

Straight-Leg Deadlifts: Hold a broomstick until you get the proper form down. When you need more of a challenge, use canned goods in each hand.

Angled and Standing Calf Raises: Feel free to hold on to the back of a chair to keep your balance on this one. When you're ready for a challenge, hold canned goods or water filled milk or water bottles in each hand.

Floor Crunches: I once had a dog that liked to lie on my stomach when I did these. That added a whole lot of extra resistance to the exercise. These can generally be done without added resistance though.

Bent-Knee Leg Raises: The best and most fun way to do this exercise is to find a small child that likes to pretend he's flying. My son loves to be the added weight on my lower legs on this one! (Remember safety and do this on a mattress if you use a child for added weight.)

For video demonstrations of each exercise, visit the Body-for-Life website here.

Enjoy your workout!

Related Blogs:

Body-for-Life Day #3 Supplement Review

Body-for-Life Recipe: Taco Salad

Body-for-Life Workout Day #3

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Aerobics, Walking/Running in Place

I'll bet you never thought that a 20 minute aerobic workout could be effective in helping you to lose weight.

News Flash!

You can lose weight, and lots of it, by only doing three twenty-minute aerobic workouts a week and three 46-minute weight training workouts a week. It has already been proven by millions of successful Body-for-Lifers! Why not become one of them?

If you've started the Body-for-Life program along with me then this will be your aerobic workout for tomorrow (Tuesday). All you need is 20 minutes and either a stopwatch or a digital clock. If you want to do this workout while watching television, you can probably do just as well using the clock on your VCR or DVR.

This Body-for-Life aerobic workout is an easy and quick one. You don't need any equipment and, if we get right down to it, you don't even need to wear any shoes! You don't need to take a whole lot of time out of your busy day to do it either. The Body-for-Life Aerobics Solution lasts only 20 minutes. If you choose to walk or run in place, you can easily do this aerobic workout in less time than it takes to watch a 30-minute sitcom and you can even do it while watching that sitcom!

The secret to the Body-for-Life aerobic workout is intensity. We all start at a different fitness level so why would we all exercise at the same intensity level? The simple fact is that we shouldn't all exercise at the same intensity. Someone who runs 5 miles a day will have a much more intense aerobic workout than somebody who is just starting a fitness regimen. The quicker we all accept that, the more productive and satisfying our workouts will be.

For more information on how the intensity scale works in the Body-for-Life aerobic workout, please visit this link at the Body-for-Life website.

Related Blogs:

Day #2 on Body-for-Life

Body-for-Life Food Review: South Beach Diet Pizza

Body-for-Life Workout: Day #2

Diet and lifestyle may play a much more significant role in a persons ability to respond favourably to certain drugs, including some cancer therapies, than previously understood, say scientists.

Writing in Nature Genetics, University of Manchester scientists have shown how the nutrients in the environment are critical to the fitness of cells that carry genetic mutations caused by diseases.

The findings for the first time provide a scientific insight into why some people might respond better to certain medications than others and form the foundations for more individualised drug treatment in the future.

The team used bakers yeast a model organism studied by biologists to reveal molecular processes in higher organisms to explore the relationship between environment and genetic background.

The large-scale study involved removing one of the two copies of all yeast genes similar to removing one parents set of genes in a human and analysing the resulting fitness under different dietary restrictions.

If the gene targeted is quantitatively important, you would normally expect the yeast to show a reduction in fitness, said Dr Daniela Delneri, who carried out the research in the Universitys Faculty of Life Sciences.

But what we found was that in certain environmental conditions, removing one copy of certain genes actually produced the opposite effect and surprisingly the yeast cells grew more quickly and were healthier.

The team further established that this effect was mainly occurring in genes involved in the proteasome the quality-control system within the cell that degrades unwanted proteins.

The proteasome is important as it maintains the equilibrium of the cell, said Dr Delneri. When this equilibrium is lost it can result in many diseases, including cancer, diabetes, Huntingdons, Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

For example, in rapidly-growing malignant cells the high proteasome activity renders the tumour cells immortal, so drugs that block or inhibit the proteasomes actions are currently used as therapeutic compounds.

Our study shows that reduced proteasome activity could be either advantageous or damaging to the cell depending on the nutrients available to it in the surrounding environment.

The findings suggest that, ideally, when therapeutic drugs are administered to alter the proteasome activity, the environment governed by the type of tissue or a persons diet and lifestyle should be taken into consideration to assure the correct beneficial effect.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

Lipoic Acid A new study done with mice has discovered that supplements of lipoic acid can inhibit formation of arterial lesions, lower triglycerides, and reduce blood vessel inflammation and weight gain all key issues for addressing cardiovascular disease.

Eventhough the results cannot be directly extrapolated beyond the laboratory, scientists report that they strongly suggest that lipoic acid supplementation may be useful as an inexpensive but effective intervention strategy. reducing known risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis and other inflammatory vascular diseases in humans.

The findings were made by researchers from the Linus Pauling Institute and College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University, and the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. They were just published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

The study observed that lipoic acid supplements reduced atherosclerotic lesion formation in two types of mice that are widely used to study cardiovascular disease, by 55 percent and 40 percent, respectively. The supplements were also linked to almost 40 percent less body weight gain, and lower levels of triglycerides in very low-density lipoproteins.

As a result, the authors concluded that lipoic acid may be a useful adjunct in the prevention and therapy of atherosclerotic vascular diseases.

We are excited about these results, especially since the supplements of lipoic acid appear to provide several different mechanisms to improve cardiovascular health, said Balz Frei, professor and director of the Linus Pauling Institute. They are helping in a fundamental way to reset and normalize metabolic processes, in ways that could help address one of the most significant health problems in the Western world.

These findings also reinforce the need for more comprehensive human studies, Frei said. That will be the next step in our research, in double-blind, randomized, clinical studies during the next five years with Oregon Health and Science University.

Alpha lipoic acid is a naturally occurring nutrient found at low levels in green leafy vegetables, potatoes and meats, particularly organ meats such as kidney, heart or liver. The amounts used in this research would not be obtainable by any normal diet, scientists said, and for human consumption might equate to supplements of about 2,000 milligrams per day. Even at low, normal, dietary levels, the compound can play a key role in energy metabolism.

Atherosclerosis, or what used to be called hardening of the arteries, is a long-term process that is now seen as a chronic inflammatory disease, which begins when certain types of white blood cells called monocytes bind to adhesion molecules on the walls of arteries. This in turn allows the monocytes to enter the arterial wall, there they become inflammatory macrophages that, in the presence of low density lipoprotein, or LDL, can transform into lipid-laden foam cells ultimately, an arterial fat deposit.

This chronic process often begins during adolescence, can continue for a lifetime, and has been associated with obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise, diabetes, high blood pressure, genetic predisposition and other causes. The fatty deposits in arteries can ultimately trigger a heart attack or stroke.

Scientists now think that high levels of alpha lipoic acid can be especially useful in preventing this process, by inhibiting the formation of the adhesion molecules. It can also lower triglycerides, another important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It may also function as an antioxidant, and helps to normalize insulin signaling and glucose metabolism.

From what we understand, this supplement would be most valuable as a preventive mechanism before people have advanced cardiovascular disease, Frei said. However, it may help retard the process at any stage, and may also be of value in treating diabetic complications.

Also of considerable interest, Frei said, is the apparent role of lipoic acid supplementation in reducing weight gain. It appears to have this effect both through appetite suppression, an enhanced metabolic rate, and at least in laboratory animals has been shown to stimulate higher levels of physical activity, which again would increase caloric expenditure and further reduce weight.

Mice given lipoic acid supplements simply chose to eat less than a control group that did not receive supplements, suggesting a reduced appetite. In another test, mice that received supplements gained less weight than other mice in a control group that were given identical amounts to eat, suggesting a higher metabolic rate and enhanced activity levels.

Weight gain and obesity is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis and heart disease, and lower weight and abdominal fat may be one of the mechanisms by which lipoic acid has beneficial effects, Frei said. The study concluded that lipoic acid supplementation may be a promising approach to prevent weight gain and to lower cardiovascular disease risk in humans.

Eventhough some of the most compelling research with lipoic acid research has been done in mouse models, researchers say, there should be a reasonable extrapolation to humans, because the lipoprotein profile is similar, as well as the composition of the atherosclerotic lesions. These mouse models are routinely used in studies of human atherosclerosis.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

     

We're ready to start the Body-for-Life program!

If you haven't started with the initial Day #1 instructions in the Weight Loss Blog, please click here. Every day will begin with the Weight Loss Blog and link to the day's workout (in the Fitness Blog) as well as the day's food tip in the Food Blog.

The great thing about the Body-for-Life program is that you don't need to join a gym to participate. In fact, you can do every workout in the privacy and comfort of your own home without the hassle of having to join a gym, pay monthly membership fees, figure out who will watch the kids or any of the associated hassles.

I've attached a workout sheet for your first day's workout. There is no need to buy expensive exercise equipment or a weight bench. You can do every one of these exercises with weights that you'll find in your kitchen cupboard. Since you can do this at home, you have no excuse not to do the workout!

Yes, that is right!

Go to your kitchen cupboard and grab two cans of beans, or whatever you have handy, and use them for your starting weights. As you get stronger, you can choose heavier cans. Another option is using two half-gallon milk jugs. Just add water to them equally until they are a challenging weight for you. When you get really buff, you can use gallon sized jugs!

For complete instructions on how to execute today's exercises properly, just visit the Body-for-Life website and see the exercise demonstrations here.

Remember that weight training workouts should take no longer than 45 minutes each. If you haven't finished your workout in 45 minutes or less you need to put the weights away anyway. Eventually you get proficient enough to get the whole workout done in the allotted time but, until then, drop the weights at 45 minutes.

Body-for-Life Day #1

Body-for-Life Day #1 Food Tip

Body-for-Life Day #1 Workout