Functional fitness is one of the most recent training trends to hit the gym scene and it has exploded in popularity due to the results that it produces.

What is it?

Functional fitness is designed to prepare your body for everyday living.  It focuses on compound movements that force you to engage all of your core muscles and your stabilizer muscles, many of which are not stimulated during traditional weight training.

An example of a functional fitness movement is the step-up.  During this exercise you step up on to a platform that’s high enough to achieve a 90-degree knee bend.  Then you lower yourself back to the ground on the same leg.  Switch sides and repeat.  This motion simulates stair climbing or getting up from a kneeling position after playing with the kids or even getting on a chair to change a light bulb.

What can it do for me?

The greatest benefit of functional fitness is that it helps reduce your risk of injury, not during your workout, but during everyday living.  So, if you worry that you’re going to throw your back out at work or that you don’t have the strength to continue heaving your toddler up the stairs everyday – you might want to look into functional fitness.

In addition to minimizing you risk of injury during everyday activities, functional fitness also makes life easier as a whole.  Every activity that you struggled to do before functional fitness will seem just a little bit easier after functional fitness.

The next best thing about functional fitness is that it doesn’t require a whole lot of equipment to do.  All you really need is your body weight and a few dumbbells and you’re ready to go.  If you can invest in it, a BOSU trainer is also great for functional fitness, but it’s not required.

More examples of functional fitness exercises:

For people who are use to doing traditional workouts, going through a few functional fitness sessions will definitely be an eye opener since functional training is usually a lot more intense than traditional workout programs.  Here are a few exercise variations that support functional fitness:

1. Squats – either with or without weight, you simply bend your knees to 90-degrees while keeping tight abs and a flat back and then return to standing upright.

The functionality of this exercise in everyday living is fairly easy to see, as we all sit down and stand up several times a day.

2. Bent rows – These can be done as one arm rows with dumbbells or as two arm rows with a barbell.  In this exercise you bend at the waist, keeping your abs tight and your back flat and your arm(s) hanging straight down.  Then lift the weight towards your abdomen by moving your elbow straight up towards the ceiling.  Lower it back down and repeat.

The functionality of this movement is reflected in everything from taking out the trash to picking up a laundry basket.  We all perform bent lifting movements almost every day.

3. Balance training – Any movement that requires you to use your balance can be considered functional training since we require balance in all that we do.

Using a stability ball, a BOSU trainer or a balance board are great ways to improve your balance through functional training.

So you see, there are plenty of things that you can do in or out of the gym to train your muscles to work together to support your everyday movements.  Beginning a functional training program, or even incorporating a few days of functional training into your current workout schedule will save you a lot of time, pain and medical bills in the the future and it will make your life easier to live.

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Abdominal trainers are extremely popular among home gym junkies – they’re also the item of choice for television infomercials, making the purchase of a quality ab machine a very confusing experience. Well, let me try to simplify it for you.

There are definitely some good quality abdominal machines on the market today for reasonable prices. The trick is to filter out the effective machines from those making false promises to make a quick buck. There are some basic things that you can look for in an ab machine that will ensure you’re buying an effective piece of equipment.

1. Motion

If you’re looking at an ab machine that only offers forward flexion, you should probably look elsewhere for the ab trainer that will produce results. You abdominal region is comprised of four major areas that you need to work to have a strong, well developed mid-section; the upper abs, the lower abs, the oblique’s and the intercostals.

In order to target all of these areas you need a machine that offers forward and lateral movement.

2. Adjustability

A quality abdominal trainer will offer at least a couple of adjustment options so you can be sure that it will fit your frame. There is nothing worse than trying to perform a crunch motion on a machine that’s too big for you – you may even risk injuring yourself if you try to train on a machine that isn’t fit to your build.

“Make sure that the ab machine you choose to buy with fits you off the shelf or provides some adjustment options.”

3. Comfort

This goes hand-in-hand with adjustability. More than likely, if you’re buying an ab machine in the first place, it’s because you think regular crunches and traditional abdominal exercises are uncomfortable or ineffective.

So, when you buy a machine, make sure you aren’t going to have the same complaints. If you’re going to be uncomfortable doing an ab workout, you may as well do it for free and stick to crunches.

Otherwise, buy a quality machine that won’t stress your neck and back and that effectively targets the correct muscles.

4. Avoid the Hype

Many infomercials promoting abdominal trainers would have you believe that you can get a six pack in just minutes a day, regardless of what your diet looks like. What!? Okay guys, if you’re buying that statement, it’s time for a little reality check.

The first thing you should know is that eating a clean diet and doing regular cardiovascular exercise is about 85% of the formula to developing a six pack abdominal region. The other 15% is actual abdominal training. So, any product that claims results without diet or exercise should be avoided.

The next thing you should understand about abdominal trainers is that you don’t need machines at all. You certainly don’t need to invest huge amounts of hard earned money into an ab machine. In fact, your abdominal equipment should probably be the least expensive area of your entire home gym.

If you choose to buy one, it should be to add a little variety to your abdominal routine.

Machines won’t give you any greater benefits than performing bodyweight exercises such as crunches, planks and leg lifts. However, if you’re more inclined to use a machine than you are to do the abovementioned exercises, by all means, get the machine.

In the scheme of muscular development, the core region is the most important area to focus on. Without a strong core (which includes lower back muscles as well), you are more likely to suffer from chronic back pain.

A strong core is also necessary to build the rest of your muscles since there isn’t anything that we do in a day or in a workout that doesn’t require some degree of core strength.

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If you’re anything like me, you love to eat out!  For some reason, even the simplest meals seem to taste better when someone else does all the work in preparing them (maybe that’s an indicator of my cooking ability).  The problem is, when you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle and avoid high fat high calorie foods, dining out can turn into a stressful event.

Don’t worry though, I’m here to help you get through a night out without falling off the healthy eating train altogether.  Below are just a few suggestions about how you can eat out, enjoy yourself and still maintain healthy eating habits.  Happy dining!

Leave your appetite at home

What?  I know what you’re thinking, “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard – the reason I’m going out is to eat!” Am I right?  Perhaps I should word that a little more carefully – don’t arrive at the restaurant starving.

If you have a small healthy snack before you leave for your dinner date, you’ll be less inclined to order everything on the menu when you get there.  It’s the same philosophy behind the “don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach” advice.  The hungrier you are, the less control you’ll have.

Be Familiar With the Menu

If you can, look at an online menu or a takeout menu from the restaurant you’re planning to dine at.  Have an idea of what they offer and what you’d like to order before arriving to eat.  That way, you can avoid looking at the menu altogether, minimizing the temptation to order every greasy dish offered.

Save Your Cheat Meal

If you want to eat healthy for life, you have to cut yourself some slack.  You can’t expect to deprive yourself of all he foods you love and stick to it for any significant amount of time.

So, since in your infinite wisdom, you allow yourself a cheat meal or two a week, save that meal for a night that you have dinner plans.  By doing this, you’ll be able to eat what you want (within reason) and you won’t have to beat yourself up for it later.

Of course, I did say within reason.  A quick clarification on a cheat meal…when you hear fitness professionals talk about allowing yourself a cheat meal, they don’t mean that you should eat a 5 course meal of fried food and dessert to make up for all of your week’s cravings.

A cheat meal is still a fairly healthy meal with an unhealthy option added in.  For example, have a smothered chicken breast instead of a plain one or eat a plain chicken breast but have a piece of cake for dessert.  The point is to avoid totally pigging out during your cheat meals.

The Old Stand byes

When all else fails, if you’re eating out and your stomach is rumbling and every high calorie dish on the menu is calling your name, break out the old stand byes – chew some sugarless gum, drink a lot of calorie free beverages and eat a big serving of salad.  Hopefully these tricks will help you through the temptations unscathed.

Finally, if all of these tips and tricks don’t work and you find yourself binging on cheese fries and chocolate cake – don’t dwell on it.  One bad day doesn’t have to mark the end of your healthy living efforts.  So, get over it quickly and resume your healthy eating habits after that meal is done.

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Home fitness equipment is a billion dollar industry with many brands, both American and international, competing for a larger share of the market.

With so many different brands offering many types of fitness equipment from treadmills to elliptical machines, it can be hard for consumers to decipher which brands to trust and which brands to avoid.

As a result I am trying to come up with a database of all the most reputable fitness equipment companies as well as provide a list and brief description of the equipment they offer.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but if you don’t find a description of the company you are looking for on here then please contact me and let me know. I will try my best to research the brand and list it here.

Body Solid Fitness Equipment – Quality is no accident, and Body-Solid proves that. They have worked since 1981 to get people in shape and during this time, they have never sacrificed quality to build the perfect piece of exercise equipment. You can see from the type of steel that they use, right down to the cables and weights that quality is the most important aspect of this company.

Bowflex Fitness Equipment - Since 1986, when Bowflex was introduced, millions of exercisers across the nation have used a machine at home and in their gyms that has helped them to get into shape, lose weight and improve their overall health.

Cybex Fitness Equipment - In 1960 Cybex moved out of the rehabilitation industry and have made their name in the exercise equipment industry. Cybex makes over 175 different machines for the individual to work out at home and for gyms to offer state-of-the-art technology to their customers.

EPIC Fitness Equipment - The EPIC fitness brand was launched by ICON’s commercial fitness group, FreeMotion Fitness, and today, continues to be a brand found in clubs, elite training facilities and premium home gyms worldwide.

FreeMotion Fitness™ is the commercial division of ICON Health & Fitness®. Since 1999, they have placed equipment in more than 2,000 fitness facilities in 40 countries worldwide. They are dedicated to providing superior design, manufacturing and customer care.

Golds Gym Equipment - Now you can bring home muscle-sculpting machines from Gold’s Gym, the body-building authority since 1965. Machine’s like Power Flex harness the power and durability you expect from Gold’s Gym.

Healthrider Fitness Equipment – Healthrider products are based on unique concepts: innovative technology, easy-to-use, low-impact and enjoyable. HealthRider was the machine that made exercising fun and easy, and the original Health Rider machine used every major muscle in the body to achieve the desired fitness goals. Because the machine was easy-to-use, even those who weren’t used to exercising started getting into physical fitness and changed their lives around and lost weight.

Horizon Fitness Equipment - Horizon Fitness provides commercial-quality home exercise equipment. Our complete line of treadmills, elliptical trainers, exercise bikes and functional strength training home gyms is designed to deliver the comfort, control and convenience you need to achieve the goals of your fitness program.

Image Fitness Equipment - Image is known for durable, quality fitness equipment at prices you can afford. Now you don’t have to go to the gym. You can have club-quality and the benefit of exercising in the privacy of your own home.

Landice Treadmills – Landice are world renown for producing high quality treadmills and ellipticals for both commercial and home use. Consistently rated at the top by many leading fitness equipment authorities, Landice make a great addition to any home gym.

Life Fitness Equipment - Offering both cardio and strength equipment, Life Fitness has been providing equipment to gyms and private homes since the 1960s. You’ve probably worked out on a Life Fitness machine at one point or another and know just how easy they are to use and how well they can be customized to each individual user.

Nautilus Fitness Equipment – Nautilus, Inc. is a pure fitness company that provides tools and education necessary to help people achieve a fit and healthy lifestyle. Nautilus manufactures and markets a complete line of innovative fitness products.

Nordic Track Exercise Equipment – With a second wind in the late 1990s, NordicTrack began to expand into more home exercise equipment, including it’s now touted line of treadmills. The same flare for ultimate design and comfort lead the company to sell strength machines, bikes, steppers and much more.

PowerBlock Dumbbells – PowerBlock is one of the best designed free weights, is customizable, expandable, space saving, inexpensive and has the best balance and the longest warranty. If that isn’t enough to convince you to get the PowerBlock, nothing will.

Precor Fitness Equipment - For over 20 years, Precor has been about moving. Moving with purpose, moving with passion and moving beyond limits with it’s range of treadmills, ellipticals, bikes and home gyms.

ProForm Fitness Equipment – One of the world’s most well known fitness equipment brands Pro-Form have a large range of equipment including treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, weight benches and more—all geared to provide the most effective workout available.

Reebok Fitness Equipment - Reebok is a well known brand of exercise equipment and apparel including treadmills, cross trainers, strength equipment, bikes and more.

Schwinn Fitness – Part of the Nautilus family of fitness equipment Schwinn have gained a world class reputation for high quality exercise bikes and ellipticals.

Smooth Fitness – Smooth Fitness is the number one online retailer of home fitness equipment and the 255th largest e-commerce site in the United States as ranked by Internet Retailer. The Company currently markets the Smooth line of treadmills, elliptical trainers and exercise bikes.

Sole Fitness – Sole brings over twenty years of treadmill and fitness product design and manufacturing to the table with a line of innovative equipment designed including treadmills and elliptical machines.

Spirit Fitness – Finding cheap exercise equipment can be difficult to do. Sure, you can always buy it used, but you never know how it was used (and abused) by the previous owner. If you are looking for great entry-level equipment that is going to work for you, you should definitely check out Spirit Fitness.

Total Gym - Founded in 1974, Total Gym has always been committed to manufacturing top-quality functional exercise and rehabilitation equipment. With over 10 years of TV advertising Total Gym is America’s most recognisable fitness equipment.

Tunturi Fitness Equipment – Have you heard of Tunturi? Chances are, the answer is “no”, even though Tunturi exercise equipment is sold in more than 40 countries around the world. Their line of fitness equipment (which has been in production since the 1970s) is long, including treadmills, exercise bikes, rowing machines, muscle trainers and more.

Weider – The most trusted name in strength training for over 25 years, Weider knows how to make you strong. Their all-in-one systems, premier benches —and even the overwhelmingly popular Platinum—all have one thing in common: Proven Weider quality.

Weslo – A comfortable balance of exercise, fitness and a budget-conscious lifestyle. With Weslo, you can take your first steps toward a healthier, more vibrant life.

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So, I was doing my usual Internet search for the latest and greatest in fitness trends when I came across a couple of really interesting posts.

The first article was about a little device called the Fitbit Tracker.  This little guy is like the pedometer’s much cooler, much hipper younger brother.  The Fitbit Tracker doesn’t just track the number of steps you take in a day, it also keeps track of your sleep patterns (as a new mom, I really need this!), the duration and intensity of your workouts and how many calories you’ve burned in a day.

This thing is so small and it’s sensors are so accurate that you can carry it around in your pocket if you want to, or you can clip it to your shirt or your bra.  Regardless of where you put it, the Fitbit continues to record your every move with a pretty high degree of accuracy.

At the end of the day, all you have to do is synchronize your Fitbit with your computer and download all of your information.  This is a great way to track energy spikes and lulls throughout your day.  It’s also a good way to determine whether you’re getting quality sleep at night.

It actually tracks your sleep time, how many times you wake up in the night, how long you remain awake during the night and how much time you spend lying in bed, not sleeping.

Hey, I haven’t tried it yet, but I know what’s going on the top of my birthday wish list for this year.  After all I’m a gadget freak and any excuse I have to acquire a new gadget, I’ll jump at.  Not to mention, who wouldn’t want their own personal sleep study conducted every night?

Who wouldn’t carry a miniature personal trainer around in their pocket all day to help keep their diet and exercise plan on track?  I know I would!

Check back with me in a couple of months and I’ll tell you how the Fitbit really works once I’ve tried it out for a while.

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All home gym junkies start out with the thought that the convenience of working out from home will help them squeeze their workouts into even the busiest days.  Unfortunately, even with the benefits of having a home gym, life can still get in the way of a consistent training routine.

Being the fitness fanatic that you are or that you’re striving to be, you simply can’t let this happen.  You have to make your workouts part of your day, regardless of what you need to do to squeeze them in.  Here are just a few tips to help you fit your workouts in no matter what your schedule looks like.

1. Trim the Fat

If you feel like you’re constantly missing workouts because of your hectic schedule, take a minute to look at how you’re spending your time.  See if there are any tasks that can be combined or, even better, delegated.

Look at the chores that you need to accomplish during the week…can any of them be moved to the weekend?  If so, that may free up a little more workout time.

Finally, look at any time that you’d consider “wasted minutes” during your day.  If you find that you have 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there of free time, you may be able to use that to squeeze in your training; which bring me to my next tip…

2. Break it Down

If your schedule is so packed that there’s nothing you can do to free up 30 minutes to an hour a day for training, you may need to break your workouts down into mini-workouts throughout the day.

This concept is similar to that of taking a smoke break, only instead of breaking to diminish your health by smoking, you can break to improve your health by doing a 5 or 10 minute circuit.

Go outside or to an open area and do push-ups, squats, walking lunges or even crunches if you have a place to do them.  You can apply any unweighted exercise you want to this circuit – heck, if you have some light weights hiding under your desk at work, you can even do weighted exercises.  The point is to just do something.

By the end of the day you’ll have done a minimum of 20 minutes of working out.

3. Adjust Your Training Plan

If none of the above tip work, you may want to consider revising you fitness program to meet the demands of your schedule.  If you presently workout 5 days a week, maybe you could shift your training split to workout 3 days a week.  Maybe do upper body training on Saturday and lower body training on Sunday and focus on cardio a couple of days during the week.

You just need to look at your training plan and look at your schedule and make you training plan an integral part of your schedule, much like going to work every day is.

4. Invest in Resistance Bands

I say this only because resistance bands can give you a pretty good workout and they’re portable.  They don’t take the place of weight training, but they can certainly augment it.  So, if you have a good program down and you travel frequently or you have some days that are harder to schedule dedicated workout time; instead of skipping your workout altogether, do a short workout with resistance bands.

5. Get Your Office On Board

Another great idea that will help others as much as it will help you is to talk to your office about approving a thirty minute fitness break for employees who are interested.

Most employers know by now that fit, healthy employees are more productive than their out of shape counterparts and have fewer sick days overall.  If you can present some figures to your boss, they may see that giving up 30 minutes a day for employee fitness will actually recoup them more hours in saved sick time they just may bite.

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We’ve already established in previous posts that it isn’t always easy to stay motivated while training at home.  Working out at home is very convenient, but sometimes it’s hard to stay focused and motivated.  Here are a few of the things that I do when I start to feel my motivation slipping away.

Friends and Family First

If you have friends or family who also workout regularly, it may do you some good to give them a call.  If you can’t get together to train for a few sessions, just until you push through your slump, maybe you can get motivated through conversation.

If you talk to someone about your fitness goals and how you intend to achieve them, you may feel the rush of energy that you had when you first started your training program come back out of nowhere.

A lot of times finding motivation is a simple as talking to someone who understands fitness on the same level that you do.  Ideally, that person can train with you a couple of times, but often, talking is enough to get you through.

The Great Outdoors

I’m fortunate enough to live in a place that has some great running trails and some pretty nice public parks.  So, the next place I turn for support in my moments of weakness is the outdoors.  Sometimes finding motivation is as simple as moving your workouts outside for a few days.

Using the sidewalks as your treadmill and local parks as your gym you can get a great workout, some fresh air and a renewed feeling of motivation.

If you’re not as lucky as I am and you live in an unsafe neighborhood or an unfriendly climate, you may want to try changing your scenery by walking at a local mall or getting a day pass at a nearby gym.

The Pros

My final source of inspiration when I feel like trading in my running shoes for a comfy couch and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s is professional athletes.

I’m a huge fan of Oxygen Magazine and I find that a good read through the latest issue always rekindles my desire to stay fit.

For some reason reading about the dedication that others have made to living a fit and health lifestyle and seeing images depicting the results of those efforts puts my own training into perspective.

The last thing I want to say on the topic of finding motivation – at the risk of sounding preachy – is that if you’re fortunate enough to have the choice to workout or not – if you are physically able to workout – you should be able to find some motivation in that.  Some people don’t have the luxury of lifting weights or running on a treadmill.  When all else fails, that always gets me going.

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Understanding the difference between good carbs and bad carbs is essential to maintain a healthy, balanced diet.  Some people will tell you that carbs are bad for weight loss – this is not true!

Good Carbs

Good carbs are also known as complex carbohydrates. Foods containing good carbs are low glycemic, which means they have negligible effects on your blood sugar and insulin levels (better for diabetics). They also contain lots of valuable vitamins and minerals.

You can get your fill of good carbohydrates in foods like fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains. Good carbs are not usually processed or altered by man-made devices.

Bad Carbs

Bad carbs are also known as simple carbohydrates and are high glycemic foods, which means that they raise your blood sugar and insulin levels rapidly. These foods typically cause weight gain and should be avoided by diabetics.

Bad carbs are found in processed foods such as candy, chips, ice cream, white bread, white rice and white pastas.

We All Need Good Carbs

Here’s why – Good carbs are considered slow burning carbs (the reason they don’t create a spike in your blood sugar levels). As a result, they provide you with a sustained source of ready energy.

What??

Okay – Carbohydrates are the bodies primary source of usable energy. That means they don’t have to be converted to a usable form of energy like proteins do – they are usable upon digestion.

So, when you consume good carbohydrates, which burn slowly, the result is a steady source of energy that stays with you through the day.

In comparison, bad carbs are also a usable source of energy, but they burn very quickly, which leads to an intense, but short lived boost in energy. Once these bad carbs are used up, you will be overcome with exhaustion. This process is commonly referred to as a “sugar rush” and the long term effects are simply not worth the quick burst of energy.

Incorporating the Good Stuff

A good rule of thumb to follow when adding good carbohydrates into your diet is to consume your weight in grams of carbohydrates. For example, a 140 pound woman would eat 140 grams of good carbohydrates a day.

If you use this approach to modify your diet instead of cutting out carbs altogether you’ll find that you have tons of energy, you’ll be able to focus better, you’ll lose weight more easily and you’ll stay more physically and mentally healthy.

All of the food groups have some place in our diets. If you want to maintain a healthy diet, you can’t just eliminate food groups – it’s unsafe, unproductive and unsustainable.

So, take all things in moderation, learn about nutrition and then make it work for you. Bon appetite’!

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If you love to workout at home and you’re always looking for the latest and greatest in home fitness trends or, if you’re frustrated because you’ve spent money on home fitness equipment that didn’t deliver the results it advertised – read on…this article’s for you!

The fitness market is a multi-billion dollar industry.  Anyone who’s ever had a sleepless night and turned on the television set knows that there’s a fitness infomercial on just about every other channel.  Every one of them promising that with this contraption or that gizmo you can lose weight and get in the best shape of your life in just minutes a day – right?

Wrong!

Let me emphasize a point here - if it promises something for nothing, don’t waste your money.  I promise you, that when it comes to fitness, you only get out of it what you put into it.

That being said, something is always better than nothing, just don’t expect miracles on minutes a day.

So, listed below are a few of the most recent trends in home fitness and my personal feelings on each.  Please, don’t just take my word on these products – maybe use it as a starting point and then do your own research, after all, it is your time, your money and most importantly, your health and wellness.

P90X

P90X is a full home fitness regiment that provides a variety of different workout DVDs accompanied by a healthy eating program.  I am always skeptical about “boxed fitness programs”, so I tried this one, sure it would be as cheezey as many of the others I’ve tried.  Wow, I was surprised!  This is one of the best home fitness video series that I’ve ever tried out.

The foundation of P90X is the concept of “muscle confusion”.  The program provides a ton of variety in order to keep your muscles guessing.  Hmm, I think I’ve heard about that somewhere before.  Anyway, each workout provides a different focus on training.  They have strength and endurance videos focused on each major muscle group; a plyometric training video; a yoga video – they even have a Kenpo Karate video.  With a total of 12 workout videos in all, you won’t have a problem with boredom anytime soon.

The best part of this program is that it’s very intense.  You won’t walk away from a P90X workout wondering if you just wasted your time.  In fact, one of the greatest aspect of this program is that it guides you through timed intervals instead of counting out a specific number of repetitions per exercise.  The program encourages you to push yourself to your own limits during the allotted time frame.  In my humble opinion, it is one of the best home fitness programs available today.

Hip Hop Abs

I’m not quite as enthusiastic about this program, but it still has some appeal to me.  I think the best thing about Hip Hop Abs is that it combines aerobic fitness with abdominal training.  This is an exremely effective way to train since half the battle of getting a tight mid-section is diet and cardio; which brings me to my next point.

Hip Hop Abs also provides a nutrition guide to help you learn to make healthier food choices – even when you’re on the go.  Any program making claims to slim and trim is just 30 days or less better give some nutritional guidance to follow

This program is great for people who are easily bored with traditional workout methods and for anyone who likes to dance.  Hip Hop Abs combines funky dance routines with core-centric movements.  This lets you have fun while you’re burning calories and tonign your mid-section.

Slim in 6

Slim in 6 is a good home fitness package for beginning fitness enthusiasts. It provides three primary workouts that increase in difficulty as your fitness level increases. It also provides a nutrition guide and some motivational materials as well as online support.

All of this put together is excellent for those who are just starting out since, if you want to see results, you’ll need to have a good balance of diet and exercise.

If you’ve been training for a long time or you’re already in exceptional shape, but you’re looking for something different, you’ll probably find that Slim in 6 is a little too easy for what you’re looking for.

With so many fitness fads and gimmicks available today, it’s hard to know which ones really work and which are just hype. Doing some basc research and making sure you read fine print about returns and guarantees can save you a lot of time and money if you end up with a product that doesn’t really deliver all that it promises.

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If you’ve been serious about working out for any period of time, you’ve probably been given the sage advice…“just listen to your body and you’ll know when you need a break”.

While this is true to some degree, for me it seems to be much more complicated than that.  As a full-time working mother of two children, both under the age of two I always feel run down.  Does that mean I should just give up my training for fear of over doing it?

I don’t think so!

In fact, despite my constant state of exhaustion, I find that as soon as I start skipping workouts, I feel even worse.

Honestly, I suspect that the majority of you multi-tasking fitness buffs have the same battle with fatigue that I do.  Yet the experts say that fatigue is a sign of over training.

So, what’s the real deal?

In a perfect world, where we all get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and our diets are clean and consistent – never disrupted by marathon meetings or grid locked traffic – then a little fatigue may be a key indicator of over training.  But we all live in the real world where fatigue is just a part of life.

So, to determine whether you’re over training or just plain tired from sleepless nights with a crying baby or from burning the mid-night oil for a boss who clearly doesn’t sympathize with your need for rest, you need to look at the big picture.

Are You Sleeping Well?

If you find that your normal sleep cycle, no matter what it may be, suddenly changes for no apparent reason, you may consider over training as a culprit.

Over training can cause fatigue, but it can also cause restless sleep cycles, where you find yourself waking up every hour or two without a reason. On the other hand, if you normally feel pretty good after 6 hours of sleep and you suddenly find yourself waking up feeling like you need about 6 more hours.

You may also look at taking a couple of days off.

Are Your Recovery Periods Changing?

Another key indicator of over training is extended recovery periods and excessive soreness.

If it normally takes you 72 hours to recover from a leg workout and this week you’re still hobbling around a full 5 days later, you should consider decreasing your intensity during your next leg workout.

However, if you’ve recently made significant alterations to your routine, your sudden marathon recovery period may just be your body adjusting. So again, look at the big picture, not just your symptoms in a vacuum.

Are You Dreading Your Workouts?

Okay, if you hate working out and you’re only doing it to look good or live longer, then please disregard this little section altogether. But, if you actually enjoy working out and all of a sudden it seems like your gym time is a punishment instead of a reward, you may be on the verge of burn out.

In this situation it’s good to keep doing light workouts or reduce you number of workouts for a week.

It’s been my experience that if I start feeling burned out and I take time off altogether, I have a very difficult time getting my butt back into the gym once I’m rested.  So, I always recommend that you first try reducing intensity or frequency of your workouts.  Then, if you still feel burned out take an extra day or two to relax.

Are You Getting Weaker?

Are you pushing yourself to your limits in the gym only to find that you suddenly seem to be losing strength instead of gaining it?  This is a classic sign of over training, particularly among beginning bodybuilders.  Many people believe that more is better in the gym.  This is simply not true.  Your muscles can only respond to a certain threshold of stimulation.  Anything beyond that results in negative results.

If you’re shaking your head right now because you’re one of these people, take a week and lighten up your workouts slightly.  Then, maintain your lighter pace for an additional week.  Once you begin to feel your strength coming back, gradually increase intensity.  You’ll be thrilled with the results you’ll see in strength and muscle size.

Okay, I could go on forever about potential indicators of over training.  The fact is that everybody’s different and every body responds differently to given stimuli.  As a result, an over training indicator for one person may mean nothing to someone else.  It is important to listen to your body, but it’s also important to consider all of the factors that are having a physical impact on you everyday.

You may not need to ease up on your training if you make an adjustment to your diet or get an extra hour of sleep at night.  Just keep it all in perspective and you’ll figure out what your body needs to keep running strong.

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