One of the keys to staying fit and lean for life, is staying healthy and injury free.  Because once you are bed ridden and receiving gifts of chocolate by the basket load, it is a slippery slope to an extra 25 pounds.

If you are anything like the rest of my readers, your back is the first thing to “POP”, without warning, just when you were about to go on vacation.

[Many people WISH they owned a time machine to warn themselves about the importance of back exercises]

We’ve all thrown our backs out doing something as simple as bending over to tie your shoes, or as challenging as the kama sutra you may have wondered to yourself, “What happened to my back and why does it hurt so much?

It was a few years ago that I think I uncovered the answer?

A good buddy of mine, Eric Wong, who has a background in Kinesiology (exercise science) and is usually in the octagon training big time MMA fighters gave me some advice that has turned my back into the best support team I could ask for.

Curious?

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Looking at the food court in a local shopping mall today I thought about these two questions:

How many people have calories on their mind?

Do any of them count calories?

I’m gonna go out on the proverbial limb here and say probably none of them.

Harsh? Maybe. But I too was once a frequent visitor of the common food courts eating fattening foods and feeling my clothes getting tighter by the fry. So chalk this up to experience.

After several failed attempts at losing weight, I finally took some responsibility and found an unlikely weapon against fat-> The PENCIL!

[I used to yawn or skip right over any talk about goal setting. But after giving it a go in my fat loss journey, I'm using it everywhere now!]

Keeping a Food Journal

In the beginning, I tried keeping a food journal but it never lasted more than a few days at a time. It was time consuming and an inconvenient exercise to calculate all of those calories ingested over the course of a day. In the end, calories were either forgotten or grossly under-estimated.
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Training biceps is fun, especially for guys. The feeling of curling a weight and the ensuing pump after just one set feels pretty damn good.

But there are downfalls.

Let me explain using my informercial voice:

Tired of standing in line for the preacher curl machine? Or the bicep cable curls machine? I know I am.

Working out at your local fitness centre can be awesome and frustrating in the same workout session. Awesome because you have a ton of fitness resources under one roof but also frustrating when the number of bodies out numbers the equipment.

[A crowded beach always beats a crowded gym... Except maybe the one above! Honey, where are the towels?]

I know the most common suggestion I hear in response to crowds in the gym is to pack up and try a different time of day.

Without dropping a couple of choice explectives, I’ll say “forget that“!

You are at the gym to train for a limited period of time so train you shall. Also, what if this is the only time of day you can make it to the gym?
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Flipping through my local newspaper last Saturday, I came across the above title minus the question mark. (Bonus points for anyone who can name my local paper in the comments section. Here’s a HINT)

I’m definitely uneasy about using descriptive words like “the best” or “#1″ when talking about any health related matter, especially exercise movements for fat loss, because we should all know by now that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to losing fat and staying fit.

[Now if these girls told me this exercise was #1, I just might have to listen!]

Think about it: If we all lose fat or build muscle the same way, then there would only be a need for one book or program? But if you’ve spent anytime inside a book store you’ll see hundreds upon hundreds of different books about losing weight or burning fat.

Back to the headline: It’s clear the message behind this title is trying to make you feel inadequate if your not doing that specific movement as part of your exercise routine.

Is it time to throw in the fat loss towel?

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Everyone can do it, but so few people know how to do it well. Breathing is something we just do!

It’s not something talked about in great lengths in main stream media or print but if you’re into activities like Yoga or meditation (which I’m starting to take a liking too) then you can appreciate the many benefits of breathing better and taking note of your improved physical and mental well-being.

[Found this pic along with a bunch of other cool underwater shots at H2o Photography . I always wondered what it would be like to breathe underwater and the possibilities of possessing this super power. I'm such a comic book geek... ]

I know in my own past experiences and of some of those around me, that life’s challenges can be overwhelming at times, and can result in the development of poor breathing habits which in turn can lead to stress and declining health.

Many researchers have observed that over time, we tend to develop short, shallow breathing patterns replacing the slow, deep belly (diaphragmatic) breathing that most (if not all) of us started with as children. This could impair skeletal muscle and metabolic function, and lead to muscle atrophy and exercise intolerance.

Can Better Breathing Really Help?

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