Supplements are a billion dollar industry.

As a result I recieve a lot of questions from interested parties as to what works best.

Most people want to use a supplement because they believe it will help them achieve greater results than they are already getting. Thats great but maybe we should first look at our fitness program design and our nutrition.

Could it be better?

If the answer is yes then save your money. Its always more effective and a whole lot cheaper to iron out the parts of your fitness routine that really count.

Sleeping, Eating, and Training. Masters these first and then we’ll talk about supplements.

Here is a look at the new Google Health. It looks pretty crazy.

Why is Tony Stark drinking that green stuff in the new movie Iron Man?

Recently in an online forum a couple of parents have been making a huge stink about the Wii Fit labeling a young relative of theirs as being “overweight”.

Their claim is that the young girl is healthy, athletic, and into sports and that this type of label can reinforce negative body image.

My take? I think that before people band together to crucify Nintendo we should all take a look at what kind of scale they are using to determine their body composition profiles.

After a little research I found that the Wii Fit uses the universal BMI scale. A scale not known for its accuracy when determining the body composition of athletic individuals. Heck my BMI is 27 which is overweight and “prone for health risks”.

So take a moment before you go blaming video games for childhood body image problems and do a little research. This scale has been used for over 100 years and yes it is outdated but when it comes to determining the body composition of mass amounts of people it actually still works pretty well.

Here is a neat little gadget I found while browsing the old interwebs.

When it comes to posture a great weight training program can help a lot but if you don’t make small improvements in your daily activities then its almost a dire effort.

The Visomate

What exactly does this little device do?

It annoys the crap out of you with a flashing light until you sit back in your chair like you’re supposed to.

I’m pretty sure its also a way of conditioning you to be compliant when the robots finally take over.

Ok, so here is my little version of :08 minute abs.

Only this routine doesn’t consist of any direct abdominal exercises.

Lets get right to it.

Month 1
Pick a piece of cardio equipment, any piece. Warm up by taking a nice steady pace for about 4 minutes.

On the 4th minute your going to push yourself as fast as you can for 10 seconds and then cool back down for 20 seconds. Repeat the 10 seconds on and the 20 seconds off until you get to the 8th minute. Done!! Cool down and go home. Repeat this 3 times a week on non weight training days.

Month 2

Same warm up. This time 15 seconds on 15 seconds off for 4 minutes.

Month 3

20 seconds on 10 seconds off. Still using the 8 minute format.

This brings you to August, you should be nice and ripped for the beach. No time was wasted doing endless non-productive hours of aerobics.

Research backs this up.

Department of Physiology and Biomechanics, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.

This study consists of two training experiments using a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. First, the effect of 6 wk of moderate-intensity endurance training (intensity: 70% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), 60 min.d-1, 5 d.wk-1) on the anaerobic capacity (the maximal accumulated oxygen deficit) and VO2max was evaluated. After the training, the anaerobic capacity did not increase significantly (P > 0.10), while VO2max increased from 53 +/- 5 ml.kg-1 min-1 to 58 +/- 3 ml.kg-1.min-1 (P < 0.01) (mean +/- SD). Second, to quantify the effect of high-intensity intermittent training on energy release, seven subjects performed an intermittent training exercise 5 d.wk-1 for 6 wk. The exhaustive intermittent training consisted of seven to eight sets of 20-s exercise at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max with a 10-s rest between each bout. After the training period, VO2max increased by 7 ml.kg-1.min-1, while the anaerobic capacity increased by 28%. In conclusion, this study showed that moderate-intensity aerobic training that improves the maximal aerobic power does not change anaerobic capacity and that adequate high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly, probably through imposing intensive stimuli on both systems.