The seasonal flu is responsible for 200,000 hospitalizations each year and approximately 36,000 deaths each year. So far this year the swine flu has been responsible for 4,958 hospitalizations and 292 deaths. Of the people hospitalized 70% have had pre-existing conditions. These are not made up numbers, they are directly from the CDC website. Now I am in no way trying to minimize the risk some people are at of becoming very ill from the flu. I just wanted to put these numbers out there because the media has caused an enormous amount of panic and it's nice to actually see some solid statistics.
On to my next subject, Cardiovascular Disease. Cardiovascular Disease is STILL the number one killer!! In fact it kills more people per year then the next 3 causes of death combined including all Cancers, Alzheimer's and Accidents, yet a lot of us still don't seem to be concerned about it. The old it won't happen to me mentality comes into play with this. . A few more startling facts are 910,000 Americans have cardiovascular disease, a person dies of cardiovascular disease every 35 seconds from the disease. For those people fortunate enough to survive a Cardiac episode, there life will be forever changed. They may live in fear of having another episode. The average number years of lost life due to heart attack is 14.2 years. Cardiovascular Disease in large part is a preventable disease. The top nine risk factors for Cardiovascular Disease in order are as follows, over consumption of alcohol, lack of exercise, lack of vegetables, obesity, hypertension, physiological index, smoking, diabetes and cholesterol ratios. Now almost every single one of those top nine are life style choices. Many of them could be corrected by exercise alone.
The point I am trying to make is, many people are in a panic over this flu season and while we need to be aware of it there is no need for panic. We all should however take a long hard look at these facts and decide whether or not we can make some changes in our lifestyle. I know that it is not as simple as going out and getting a flu shot but you can do a lot to help prevent Cardiovascular Disease. Remember your risk of dying from Cardiovascular Disease is over 30 times your risk of dying from the flu. Also a lot of the things you need to do to help prevent Cardiovascular Disease also helps prevent the flu.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
ABS
I am sitting here today in the gym and was asked for probably the billionth time how do I get ABS. My next question is always what exactly do you mean? Do you want to increase the muscle tone or do you wanna lose the layer of fat that has taken over?
Usually they are looking to lose the fat. I blame television and magazines for the misconception that you can simply buy an ab machine or do crunches to rid that layer of fat. Could not be further from the truth. Crunches are not going to burn fat at least not that much fat from the mid-section without proper nutrition and exercise.
It's a pretty simple concept. You have to eat less calories than your burning. Now there is a little more to the science end of it including your resting metabolic rate and so on but we do not need to go into that here for this purpose.
So let's break this down a little bit. What burns calories? We all know that cardiovascular exercise burns calories but is it the best option? Many people forget or don't realize that working with weights burns calories. Just because there is no calorie counter does not mean that you are not burning calories. In fact weight training can burn more calories than cardio alone. When you are done with cardio your done burning fat...when you get done weight training you continue to burn fat for many hours to follow. Another point to make is the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you burn.
So let's put to rest some common myths. Will weight training make me bulky? No..not unless that is your goal and you are eating appropriately to make this happen as well as taking supplements to speed the process. This is a big fear for many women...bottom line is women do not have the correct hormones to build muscle effectively. Will weight training make me less flexible? Again...no. As long as you are training using a full range of motion for every exercise you will not lose flexibility in fact you should gain flexibility.
So the bottom line is...get in the gym and work hard and go home and eat less. Again I am making this simple on purpose because we don't need to concentrate on fancy programs or diets especially in the beginning. This is what you need to do to find those elusive abs.
That is all for today!!!
Have a great week!!
Usually they are looking to lose the fat. I blame television and magazines for the misconception that you can simply buy an ab machine or do crunches to rid that layer of fat. Could not be further from the truth. Crunches are not going to burn fat at least not that much fat from the mid-section without proper nutrition and exercise.
It's a pretty simple concept. You have to eat less calories than your burning. Now there is a little more to the science end of it including your resting metabolic rate and so on but we do not need to go into that here for this purpose.
So let's break this down a little bit. What burns calories? We all know that cardiovascular exercise burns calories but is it the best option? Many people forget or don't realize that working with weights burns calories. Just because there is no calorie counter does not mean that you are not burning calories. In fact weight training can burn more calories than cardio alone. When you are done with cardio your done burning fat...when you get done weight training you continue to burn fat for many hours to follow. Another point to make is the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you burn.
So let's put to rest some common myths. Will weight training make me bulky? No..not unless that is your goal and you are eating appropriately to make this happen as well as taking supplements to speed the process. This is a big fear for many women...bottom line is women do not have the correct hormones to build muscle effectively. Will weight training make me less flexible? Again...no. As long as you are training using a full range of motion for every exercise you will not lose flexibility in fact you should gain flexibility.
So the bottom line is...get in the gym and work hard and go home and eat less. Again I am making this simple on purpose because we don't need to concentrate on fancy programs or diets especially in the beginning. This is what you need to do to find those elusive abs.
That is all for today!!!
Have a great week!!
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