The Benefits of Doing Pushups

In my opinion, pushups are the single most effective exercise for improving total body fitness. They offer the benefits of weight lifting, stretching and cardio vascular training all in one exercise. For a beginner, pushups can be very difficult because of how many muscles are involved. Many of which are under trained in the body of a beginner. In fact, even many seasoned bench press veterans have trouble doing high-rep pushup workouts because their secondary and stabilizer muscles are untrained.

Holding the proper form is a great exercise alone, without even performing any repetitions. The pushup form benefits the abdominal muscles in the same way that Arnold Presses benefit the biceps, by simultaneously flexing and stretching. When the lower back muscles contract to stabilize your form, your abdominal muscles are inadvertently stretched. The quadriceps is also relied on heavily to maintain proper form, giving your legs a decent secondary workout.

The actual motion of a pushup trains the chest, triceps and the anterior deltoids, while stretching the biceps and back. Pushups are considered by many people to be the best all-around chest workout. I have found that they are great at increasing muscle size and tone. I have also found that they are easier on the joints than the bench press. Additionally, large pushup workouts are great for circulation and overall cardiovascular health.

When performed in high-repetition workouts, pushups can increase human growth hormone, boosting overall muscle growth. This is the hidden benefit of pushups that many people never discover because they only perform pushups as a supplemental exercise, rather than as a primary chest workout. My article entitled, "Do Pushups to Build Muscle Mass and Boost Metabolism," details how to build up your strength and endurance to completing a 1000-pushup routine. If you plan to use pushups as a primary chest exercise, then I encourage you to perform a lot of sets and reps, and set a goal of completing between 500 and 1000 pushups. Pushups are much more challenging and painful than a standard bench press, but if you commit yourself to them, you can have amazing results.

Pushups were the first bodyweight exercise that I developed any skill at. When I first started doing them, I lost a considerable amount of body fat in a relatively short period of time. This allowed me to start performing other bodyweight exercises that I had previously been unable to perform, such as pullups.

Is Greek Yogurt Good Or Bad For You? Busting the Confusion

My girlfriend had a great question for me the other day. She likes to train hard and practices healthy eating like a lot of women these days. But she had a great question. She is smarter than the average person when it comes to nutrition. That comes from the benefit of growing up in a sporting environment (and maybe listening to me rant on about different topics too!), so I am certain that she is not the only one confused by the food myths about nutrition that are out there today.

This question revolved around whether Greek yogurt is healthy for us considering it is higher in fat than other yogurt varieties. It was a great question. Now it is time to bust some myths.

Greek yogurt is a great source of nutrition because it has minimal human interference. This means that it does not have any artificial sweeteners, flavours, colours or any numbers or words that are too hard to pronounce.

That is always the giveaway that a food choice is not a good choice. If it has an ingredients list as long as your arm then it has been removed of any good that it initially had.

Greek yogurt is higher in fat than most other varieties of yogurt because it has not been poisoned with artificial sweeteners that are used to add taste once the fat has been taken out of something.

The danger of artificial sweeteners is they remove your body's ability to detect when you are full. This means that you are more prone to keep on eating and eating, meaning your waist line gets even bigger.

Foods that have natural fat have a tendency to fill you up so you don't need to eat as much. This is the same for foods that are high in protein.

Next time you are in the cold section of your supermarket I challenge you to compare the labels of Greek yoghurt (not fat free or low fat or course) with that of any yoghurt variety. While you are there, compare the same two yogurts with a low or fat free yoghurt and you will see how many more processed chemicals and rubbish is contained in them.

Don't be a victim of marketing that states that low fat foods and fat free foods are better for you. They are making your waist line bigger.

Don't believe all of the rubbish that you read in magazines or newspapers or from "Personal Trainers" and some nutritionist who have their heads stuck in the sand and are recycling the same out of date information that they were taught in college years ago. Take the word of a real world fat loss expert who has been to the dark side and returned. Meaning of course, that I don't eat fat free or low fat foods anymore because I realise how bad they are to my fat loss mission. I hope that you will join me.

Success - The Law Of Reciprocity

The law of reciprocity can basically be summed up by stating the golden rule: do unto others as you would have others do unto you. However it goes one step further then this. The law states that whatever you do will be returned back to you. In other words, if you want to create success for yourself, help someone else become successful.

Your mother may have told you many things that fall under this law when you were a kid. For instance, she may have told you that if you wanted friends you needed be friendly. Or, if you are a bully one day you will be bullied back. Your mother actually was telling you about the law of reciprocity without you or her even knowing about it.

When it comes to success in your life the law of reciprocity will help you gain unparallel amounts of success. The more you help others gain what they are looking for the more you will be helped. It may not seem like this is the case on the surface but you cannot give without receiving back.

Begin to search people out who need help in their lives. Maybe you know someone that is struggling to be successful and you know someone that can help them become successful. Get on the phone right now and put the two of them in contact with each other. Believe me, one day you will need to be put in contact with someone that can help you out. You might as well start the putting the law of reciprocity into place now that way when you really need it you have something to draw out of.