Spot Training: The Myth

No, training your abs harder will not give you more visible abs, in fact squats are more beneficial.  It may be counter-intuitive to some, but after thinking it over it will become a bit more obvious.

What is Spot Training?

Spot Training is training or excising only one muscle group or area of the body.

Why Spot Training?

Often people believe if they want a more defined area of their body that they need to increase the reps for that particular muscle group. Although this will tone and condition the muscle it will not remove fat around the muscle group that is keeping it from being visible.

How Body Fat Reduction Works

When exercising a muscle group the energy comes from calories, some of those calories come from "stored calories"(fat),  your body grabs calories from all of its fat stores not just the fat stores available in the area being exercised. So when doing crunches your body is not using only the fat stores in your abdomen but rather all of the fat stores available in your body. If you go for a jog with your dog, squat in the gym, or rep crunches in your living room, fat will still be all be burned the same.

Why Squats Over Crunches?
Since your body grabs its energy from fat stores all over the body it is best to uses muscles that require a lot of energy.  Just look at the size of your hamstring and quadriceps compared to your biceps and triceps.  Your legs can lift a lot of weight, and moving a lot of weight requires a lot of energy (calories)

The Best Bet
Stay away from sport training.  It isn't good for your body to have muscle imbalances.  Eating healthy will help prevent having excess calories that are stored as fat.  Also, controlling your metabolism which can be read about here ( Metabalism: Know It  Control It ), and of course a daily does of physical activity.

Thanks for reading, any advice on things you would want to read about is always appreciated.  Otherwise have a great day and spread the health

Sugar: A Bitter Sweet Tale

Let me say this plain simple.  Sugar isn't what it used to be and what it has become is somewhat terrifying.

Making smart choices in controlling sugar helps you control weight, aging, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypoglycemia, cancer and a host of indirectly related diseases.

Sugar is a Culprit in a host of various health issues and problems.  Around half of Americans consume a half pound of sugar a day! In comparison the average persons consumption of sugar in single year has jumped from 4 lbs in the 1700's, 18 lbs in the 1800's, to 90 lbs in the 1900's, to monstrous current number of 180 lbs annually.

Now that we know our sugar intake has gotten out of control lets hit the facts about what this sugar is doing to our bodies.

Facts

1. 1 gram of sugar contains 4 calories.

2. Sugar is digested immediately which means the calories are instantly available to be used as energy.

3.  When the body does not need energy the calories are instantly converted to fat.

4. When sugar is consumed the pancreas must excrete insulin to regulate blood-sugar levels, the stress from this creates additional problems including throwing off triglyceride levels which is a major predictor in heart disease.  This may also play a role in Type-II diabetes which occurs when the receptor cells to insulin no longer works, along with many other insulin related problems.

 5 STAY AWAY from high-fructose corn syrup.  Simple sugars such as fructose and glucose found naturally in food are balanced with enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.  This allows the sugar to be naturally digested and at a slower pace.  High-fructose corn syrup is corn syrup that has been genetically altered to become a sugar/syrup. Corn is easy to grow cheaply and yield large amounts. Every cell in the body can digest glucose(designed for our body) only the liver can digest high-fructose corn syrup(designed for profit).

6. Around the 1970's most sugary beverages made the switch form glucose to high-fructose corn syrup. Coca-cola has 39 g's.  Vitamin Water has 33g's.

7.  Daily % values of sugar do not exist.  The American Heart Associations recommends keeping intakes under 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men. 

Fight Back

Be smart about sugar.  Take an extra second when buying food or drink and look at the amount of sugar, then remember this article.  Lastly, take your eyes down to the ingredients list.  If you see high-fructose corn syrup gently place it back and choose a product that wasn't synthesized in a laboratory.  Remember even juices and sports drinks that are perceived to be healthy may shock you on their amounts of sugar.

As always questions and comments are appreciated.