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A President’s Standard of Fitness: Do you Measure Up?

  • December 9, 2009 12:20 pm

How many of you all remember the presidential fitness tests when we were in grade school? Well there is new test which is based on the same program aimed at adults.

Created in 2008, the adult fitness test is meant to test the aerobic fitness and muscular strength and endurance of the men and women of the United States. It is pretty basic in its testing criteria and easy enough that anyone can do it at home. You could even make it a competition between you and your friends to further motivate yourself to try harder.

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Alcohol and Your Heart: A Reason to Raise a Glass

  • December 8, 2009 11:38 am

Here is some health advice that we can all get excited about. Recent research is showing a stronger casual link between alcohol consumption and coronary health.

Before we get into the details let me say a few words. Drinking in this article will be defined as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Thus, we are not promoting in any way heavy drinking. Further, if you do not already drink do not start drinking because of this article. Most of the research in this area is new, and though it comes from prestigious institutions it is still not fully understood.

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Cholesterol: It’s Not the Evil You Think it Is

  • December 7, 2009 10:51 pm

In a previous post we discussed what it means to be physically fit and some factors that contribute to a state of overall fitness. Cholesterol was one of these factors and so this we are going to discuss what it is and how it influences our health and well-being.

Cholesterol is a sterol, which basically is a steroid with a hydroxyl group added to it. More simply, it is a steroid alcohol if you will. It is not, as many people assume, a form of fat. It is though found in all fats and oils.

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Rant: Push Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It

  • December 7, 2009 11:24 am

So I’m at the gym today and what do I see but three girls “working out” in the shortest shorts ever, talking and laughing like it’s the most fun they’ve had in their lives. Now, why did I just put “working out” in quotes? Because there’s a difference between actually working out and just hanging out in the gym and thinking you’re working out, and apparently a lot of people do not realize this. The gym is not a place to socialize people — be it the basement of your house, gym in your apartment or road you are going running on, go there with a purpose.

If you’re in the middle of a set and talking to the person next to you, you are not working out. If you are looking across the room and checking out some girl stretching, you’re not working out. And if you feel exactly the same at the end of a set as you did at the beginning, you damn sure are not working out.

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What is fitness? A Misunderstood Word

  • December 7, 2009 10:59 am

When asked what it means to be physically fit, most people respond by answering that it means being athletic, thin, strong, fast or any combination of the latter. This is still a broad definition. Since this blog’s purpose is to help explain what fitness is and how one can be fit, I find it necessary to define the term.

For our purposes, fitness is the epitome of health. Now this might seem bizarre or incorrect, but a properly executed fitness regimen will provide excellent health benefits. Merely exercising and dieting by no means produce fitness though. For example, someone who runs everyday but is on a high carbohydrate, low fat and medium protein intake  diet is at risk of developing atherosclerotic disease, among a slew of other things. Fitness then is a compound measurement of many key areas.

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Breakfast of Champions: Truth to the Phrase

  • December 6, 2009 11:07 pm

If there is one phrase in fitness that holds true it is that breakfast is indeed the meal of champions and is important for getting you through the day with energy.

What makes breakfast important is that it provides our bodies with fuel for the rest of the day, if the meal is balanced in protein, carbs and fat, curbs our appetite reducing the risk of overeating later and improves our concentration and focus. Some people tend to think that they do not have the time to eat breakfast. Just like those that believe that they cannot workout without a gym membership, this is nonsense.

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But, I Don’t Belong to a Gym

  • December 6, 2009 9:24 pm

One of the most widely circulated reasons that I hear as to why it is hard to stay healthy is someone saying that they do not belong to a gym. Who ever stipulated that being healthy required a gym membership? I think the reason  that people will resort to an excuse like this is because they do not know how to exercise without exercise equipment. Well let me see if I can help dispel the myth that being healthy requires a gym membership.

So what exactly do we do at a gym? Well, we either push something, which would be weights, pull something, or breathe hard which would be cardio. Now, unless you live in a box, I think it is impossible for anyone to say that they cannot do those three things in and around their house or place of work.

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BMI as a Case of Misusing Data

  • December 6, 2009 7:31 pm

It can be said that as a society, we are generally concerned with the status of our weight and if we are overweight, underweight, or healthy. The most frequently used measurement for assessing what category we fall into is BMI, or Body Mass Index. If you have not heard of it then don’t worry, you have not been missing out on any real knowledge.

BMI is calculated via the following formula:

BMI =
( kg/m² )		 (weight in pounds * 703 )
————————————–
height in inches²

Thus, it is merely a factor of your weight and height. 703 is a conversion factor from imperial to metric units as the formula was originally derived by a Belgium statistician early in the nineteenth century. It is incredibly accurate at predicting the overall state of health of a population, but for individuals it is terrible. Now I will say that the CDC and most physicians use this measurement as a general rule of thumb, but it is still mind boggling trying to figure out why.

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A Novel Beginning: Secrets To…

  • December 6, 2009 4:27 pm

When is the last time you heard someone or something tout that it was going to reveal to you the 5, 10 or maybe even 15, secrets that would turn your life around. 10 secrets to amazing fat loss, or 5 quick steps to rock hard abs, this kind of non-sense is everywhere. Let it be known though that a finite percent of these claims do contain useful knowledge and tips that will help you reach a certain goal an exponentially larger proportion are absolute bogus pseudo-science. Again, the purpose of this blog is to help you better understand what is real and what is not.

If you google secrets of fat loss, http://topsecretfatlosssecret.com/ is the first link that comes up. First let me say that anyone or anything that makes you buy knowledge relating to health and fitness is nonsense. This does not include trainers, dietitians, nutritionists or doctors as they are charging you more for a one on one assessment of your needs. Back to, “Dr Suzanne Gudakunst”. She is making the claim that all people who are overweight are overweight because their intestines plaque buildup that is preventing the digestion of food, but to remedy this you need to buy her secret.

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Who can you listen to?

  • November 23, 2009 7:44 pm

There are few markets that are as saturated with pseudo-knowledge and self proclaimed experts as the fitness market. Everywhere you look there is someone or something telling you how to be healthy, how to be in good fitness, or how to achieve a particular goal. It has come to the point that it is almost impossible to pick out the real information and knowledge, and so we believe whatever sounds the best, or whatever seems to be articulated in the most elegant manner. The problem is that 99% of the information available at arm’s length is intended to sell us on something and thus this massive percentage of information is likely based in non-fact. AITank’s purpose is to make sense of what we hear and read, to separate fact from fiction and inform you so that you can make better decisions in regards to what you allow to influence your fitness. We are pushing for the raw truth.

The AITank Team