Everyone with a blog seems to have something to say about the new iPad. So I figured I’d throw in my crappy and unqualified opinion.

It’s a big iPod. So what?! Is that a bad thing? The iPod touch is a pretty awesome and remarkable device. Just like anything else in America, if you make something bigger, that by default makes it more awesome. Right?

People need to stop whining about it. We are so spoiled with technology right now. People on the Internets are so cynical when it comes to this stuff lately. If you knew 10 years ago that a device like the iPad would exist today, you would have probably been peeing your pants with anticipation. But no, you want it to have everything.

(That being said, a front facing camera and the use of multiple apps at a time would be nice.)

Oh, and one more thing. If nothing else at all. The iPad is a sick and I mean SICK platform for games. Think about it.

I’ve always been into meditation. I guess it’s something I picked up from martial arts at an early age. But just recently I’ve been using it as a post workout tool for recovery. I have to say, it seems to do the job quite well.

Not to mention there are some legit studies showing it’s effectiveness post exercise. Check this study out from the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Here is my current routine.

1. I find a quite place to sit down and relax. I try to keep it distraction free, but by no means do you need to be in complete darkness and silence. Hell, sometimes I don’t even close my eyes. There’s no set rules in meditation. That’s why I like it.

2. Start by watching your breath. Just notice the sensation of the air entering your lungs. Try to keep the breaths deep into your abdomen. Almost like you’re breathing into your gut.

3. Focus on relaxing every muscle in your body. Start from the top of your head on down to your toes.

4. Once relaxed you’ll probably notice your mind will tend to wonder off occasionally. That’s alright, it always happens. Just bring yourself back to watching your breath.

It doesn’t take much to get results. Start with 2 or 3 minutes. Sometimes recovery is neglected, but it really is one of the most important aspects of a workout. In recovery is where you build lean muscle, burn fat, and clear harmful stress hormones from the body.

Give it a shot. Let me know if you’ve tried this or have found a better way.

1. Leg Extensions: You’ve already spent most of the day in a seated position. The last thing you need to do is train your legs from that same position. As someone who spends any amount of time sitting we have to be sure that our workout routines are well balanced. Providing exercises that focus more on quality movement patterns and less on specific muscle groups. Truth is leg extensions may be doing more harm than help. Passive structures in the knee (ligaments) are stressed more in open chain exercises like the leg extension which can lead to future knee pain and range of motion problems. During the knee extension several stabilizing muscles are taken out of the movement creating an imbalance of work done by primary movers and synergistic stabilizers. In other words, this is an injury waiting to happen.

Alternatives

*Dynamic Lunges
*Step-Ups
*Front Squats
*Terminal Knee Extensions or Backwards Walking for any individuals with knee impairments

2. Military Pressing: Few people, not excluding high level athletes possess optimal shoulder build to be able to do this exercise “safely”. I put safely in quotes because you may not suffer an acute injury from shoulder presses, but chances are down the road you may develop some sort of impingement. Understand this is not a matter of poor training or weak musculature. It is simply a matter of how you are built. This is not to say that Military Presses can’t have their place in a well planned out exercise program. Let’s face it; the average computer guy geek has sub-optimal posture in the first place. The last thing we want to try and do is have him press heavy weights over his head. The outcome could be very dangerous. For our purposes in the gym, I believe much safer exercises can be used to create even better results without this risk.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups (there is a large variety)
*Gators
*Press-Outs

3. Sit-Ups: Everybody’s favorite exercise. If not for great looking abs then surely they are good for “core” strength and your lower back right? The truth is, when you perform a Sit-Up you are using very little abdominal strength and a whole lot of hip flexor strength. Contracting these hip flexors and flexing forward can create excessive amounts of compression on our lower spine. For anyone who sits for any length of time during the day this is not an ideal situation. Most geeks need more abdominal strength but there are much safer and more effective ways to go about getting it.

Alternatives

*Planks and Side Planks
*Reverse Pull-Ins
*Jack Knives
*Chop and Lift

4. Bench Press: Another favorite exercise to most average gym goers. But here we sit, not the “average” person. One of the last things we as geeks want to do is reinforce our tendency to be slumped with our shoulders rolled forward. After all this is the position most of us are in the majority of the day if we spend any time at a computer. Unfortunately our friend the bench press is only going to do more hurt than help when it comes to this negative posture. Don’t worry though, like the others there are plenty more exercises that can be used to get the same and most likely better results. Most of which allow our shoulder blades to move freely throughout the exercise which actually reinforces a more desired posture.

Alternatives

*Push-Ups
*Cable presses (unilateral or bilateral)
*Gators

5. Upright Rows: When it comes to the upright row I struggle to find a reason why anyone would need this movement. If this is in your routine I suggest you take a moment to re-evaluate what your goals are in the gym. Keeping your forearms internally rotated while you abduct your upper arms is a recipe for impingement.

Alternatives

*Barbell Rows
*Dumbbell Rows
*Face Pulls
*Cable Row Variations

Conclusion: When designing yourself an exercise program it is important to create goals and choose exercises based on their potential benefits as well as risks. As geeks we have to be mindful of our posture and the implications it will have on our workouts. It may not be a glamorous approach but in the long run it will be the most effective approach regardless of what our goals may be. Remember, if you get injured working out it won’t matter what those goals are because you won’t be able to work out at all.

The Scene; You’re driving in your Volkswagen on a cool autumn day. You gaze out the window to admire the colorful foliage when out of nowhere a toddler on a big wheel rolls directly in front of your car. You slam on the breaks, just barely avoiding disaster.

You can feel your heart in your chest. It appears everything has slowed down. Your vision seems to have narrowed. Your once clogged sinuses are now clear. That nagging tendonitis you have had in your elbow seems to have temporarily gone away.

Your body has just given you a powerful dose of Epinephrine.

Epinephrine/Adrenaline

The fight of flight hormone. Your body releases epinephrine in response to short term stress situations. These situations tend to involve extreme changes in the environment, like those of temperature, noise, bright light, or children running in front of your car. The purpose of this temporary doping is to allow increased oxygen to reach the brain and skeletal muscle in order to allow for momentary peak performance. The type of performance one might have needed to escape from a sabre toothed cat 2 million years ago. The software in our bodies hasn’t really updated much since then.

Testosterone

For our purposes I’ll skip the sex education speech and go into the not-so-familiar method of elevating testosterone; through exercise. Studies have shown that using complex movements like squats and pull ups as opposed to leg extensions and biceps curls has a much greater impact on our bodies ability to naturally increase its testosterone levels. Testosterone offers us a plethora of benefits such as increased libido, mental and physical energy, decreased fat mass, and increased protein synthesis and bone density. Not bad for anyone whose goal is to either shed a few pounds or gain some lean muscle. Aside from using compound movements studies also seem to favor using heavy weights when trying to stimulate greater testosterone levels.

Cortisol

Like epinephrine, cortisol is also released due to stress. Its job is to try to bring your body’s systems back to homeostasis after an event. It does this by increasing blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar. It also temporarily shuts down the immune system in order to cater to the other more important bodily systems. Unfortunately, some negative side effects of long term cortisol release can leave you pretty beat up on the inside. Your body is now more likely to store fat close to the vital organs in your gut so that it is more readily available for the next stressful event. A good way to spot the stressed out guy at your office is to look for the beer belly.

Although this article did not focus completely around exercise and fitness, it should be easy to see how knowing a little bit about the way things work on the inside can affect the way you look on the outside. Understand and learn your body; that is a major key to success in any fitness program.

By Tom Venuto
Author of: Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

It’s lunchtime, and you’re trying to decide what to make today. Normally, you would have your regular chicken salad with mixed nuts, but today is different. You’re going to a party in the evening, and even though you’re not quite sure what to expect, you know there will be a ton of food in an atmosphere of very little restraint. You decide that it’s probably best to eat a lighter lunch than usual, to prepare for the evening calorie-surge.

This is commonly known as “banking calories” which is analogous to saving calories like money because you’re going to consume more later.

I usually do not recommend this. Here’s why:

If you skip meals earlier in the day to “prepare” (bank calories) for a big feast at night, you are thinking only in terms of calories, but skipping meals is also depriving yourself of protein (amino acids), carbohydrates, essential fats, vitamins, minerals and other valuable nutrients that come from healthy food, as well as the small frequent meals which help control your appetite, stabilize your blood sugar and provide a steady flow of amino acids to your muscles. Skipping breakfast is especially detrimental.

Not only that, but eating less early in the day in anticipation of overeating later in the day is much more likely to increase your appetite, causing you to binge or eat even MORE than you thought you would at night when the big meal does arrive.

In fact, eating healthy, high fiber and lean protein food, as usual, earlier in the day is likely to make you LESS hungry for the holiday party meal and you’ll be more likely to eat only a harmlessly small amount of “party” foods.

I don’t like the concept of “banking calories” if it means skipping meals or if it’s used as justification for binge eating.

Even if it worked the way you wanted it to, the starving and binging pattern may cause more damage than an occasional oversize meal, even if only on a psychological level. Some dietitians might even argue that this kind of behavior borders on disordered eating.

A better approach is to stay on your regular menu of healthy foods and small meals through the entire day – business as usual – and then go ahead and enjoy yourself at your party by treating yourself to a SMALL amount of “BAD” food.

This is supported by the 2nd Corollary of the law of calorie balance:

“Small amounts of ANYTHING – even junk food- will probably not be stored as fat as long as you are in a calorie deficit where you are eating fewer calories than you burn.”

It should be a big relief for you to know that when you’re at a party, a banquet, dining out or eating at a relative’s house for a special occasion, you can eat whatever you want with little or no ill effect on body composition, as long as you respect the law of calorie balance ans as long as it is done infrequently.

However, you CANNOT starve and binge and expect not to reap negative consequences.

If you sincerely want to burn fat and be healthy, then you have to have the discipline to stick with your nutrition plan consistently and control your portion sizes.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

To learn more about burning fat naturally in a healthy, sensible way, then be sure to take a look at Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

By Tom Venuto
Author of: Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

We’ve all been at the holiday get-togethers, and have quickly devoured something devilishly delicious with little thought. Some feel little shame for eating a cake or drinking half the bowl of punch, but others find themselves feeling guilty afterward and can’t help but think, “oops, I shouldn’t have eaten that.” I have to admit I do get a little chuckle out of the “accidental” part! Do you ever really “accidentally” eat anything? I think we are all responsible for everything we eat and how much we eat and until you consciously realize and accept this, and take the time to do some proactive meal planning, you will probably continue to have lots of “overeating accidents!”

After you overindulge, I definitely do NOT recommend skipping your next meal or skipping meals the next day to make up for it. I usually don’t even recommend cutting back either, although there may be exceptions where you could manipulate your meal size or macronutrient composition.

I generally recommend returning immediately to your “regularly scheduled meal programming,” because this continues to encourage the maintenance of positive habits such as eating 5-6 small meals every day.

I do suppose whether you cut back could depend on whether you’ve been on low calories a long time, how lean you were already, and on whether you were in a caloric deficit already. If you were in a calorie deficit for the day, then the extra calories might only bring you up to maintenance, not “over” your daily limit, which might not be as damaging as if you were in a calorie surplus.

If you were already very lean or had been dieting strictly for a long time (as in a bodybuilder coming off a competition), a large meal or entire high calorie day might not have any negative effect either. Your metabolism has a way of slowing down if you keep your calories too low 100% of the time.

With occasional (planned) higher calorie days, you’d be using the BURN THE FAT “zig-zag” or “cycling” principle, so eating more in this context can be a positive thing. (Note: You can learn more about this technique in the BURN THE FAT program at Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle). However, there’s a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” or a planned high carb, clean food “re-feed” day and a binge on junk food. Regardless of total 24 hour calorie intake for the day, you could still store body fat after heavy eating if it’s done at certain times and in a certain metabolic state.

Although I do prescribe calorie levels based on daily (24 hr) needs, I believe you should also pay attention to 3 hour “windows” when you’re thinking about adjusting your caloric intake. Calories and macronutrients (protein/aminos, carbs/sugar and fat) are partitioned into glycogen, muscle or fat tissue or burned immediately depending very much on present moment energy and recovery needs and on what’s going to happen over the next 3 hours or so as the food enters your system.

So, if you’re going to be plopping down on the couch to watch football games for the rest of the day and night after that big holiday meal, beware – you might just want to cut back on that next meal a little, especially starches and sugars.

Bottom line: It’s okay to eat small amounts of your favorite junk foods once in a while as planned “free meals,” and it’s a good idea to eat more in general from time to time to keep your metabolism humming along. However, your best bet if you’re really serious about fat loss is to avoid huge meals and avoid bingeing in the first place. ALWAYS practice portion control – even on holidays.

If you ever do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on the wagon with your next meal and remember, the past is behind you and today is a new day.

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

P.S. If you’re interested in burning fat naturally in a healthy, sensible way, then be sure to take a look at Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle – it’s the best place to start your journey: Click Here

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: Click here

A little ad that’s started playing on our local television channels. It may be old news a lot of us health conscience individuals, but you would be surprised how many people do not know the risks associated with sugary beverages.

What do you think?