Click Here To See The New Blog – the style and substance are unchanged, and all our past posts are still in the index over there for you to read!

Type Our New Address Into Your Browser – http://www.fusionsouth.com/blog is the address! Be sure to update our address into your favorites!

Get To Our Blog Through The Official Site – Our new blog is posted and updated on the right-hand portion of our main website, and you can reach it through there, just as in the past!
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To close, just a few quick things about the move and other FusionSouth issues:

Integration Makes Sense For Us
We wanted from the beginning to integrate our blog into our domain, in order to get all our traffic flowing through our Official Website, and make a more seamless internet product for our readers, followers, and clients. For everyone involved, the transition makes sense.

WordPress Is Phenomenal
Although we transitioned away from it, WordPress is a great free site on which to blog. If you are currently blogging, or considering it for any reason, we definitely recommend WordPress as being incredibly professional, easy to use, simplistic, and generally superior. Go there for all your blogging needs!

Our Product Remains The Same
Rest assured, our product remains unchanged. We will continue to blog between five and seven times per week, we will continue to add to all of our different categories (including Letters From Readers, Fitness Hall of Shame, and more!), and you can continue to come to us a source of reliable, original, and sensible fitness and health information. The layout of the blog is also generally unchanged, so you will be able to navigate it in the same way as you did our WordPress blog.

All Other Contact Information Remains The Same
Our Facebook and Twitter accounts stay the same, our contact e-mail address is consistent, and our website is generally unchanged – although we add new pages and text to it from time to time as necessary!

Thanks for the continued support, enjoy the new blog, and remember to update your Bookmarks to include the new address! Be Well!

Instead of floating through your life aimlessly and getting pushed into all sorts of different endeavors, grab life by the horns and take control. Write down a plan of action. Take stock of your current existence – it may be gut-wrenching to analyze yourself honestly, and come to grips with your shortcomings, laziness and mistakes – but in the long run, that self-awareness will pay dividends about which other people can only dream.

Where do you want to be in one year? What about ten years? How do you want to feel about yourself? How will you get there? Who will help you? Who will not?

Sit down, right now, and ask yourself those questions. Write down a few goals that you want to accomplish within the next year. Write down some long-term goals that you want to accomplish across the next five or ten years. Be realistic, but be challenging. Then, write down a plan of action, detailing exactly how you are going to reach those goals. Write down ideas, ways, means, methods, and thoughts – anything helps. Don’t just hope success will fall into your lap – figure out exactly how you will reach your goals and pursue it intensely, fully, and excuse-free. Losers make excuses; winners make changes.

As for the last two questions, take stock of those around you. Who will help you reach your goals? If you are trying to lose 50 pounds, do you need the help of a trainer or a nutritionist? If you are training for a triathlon, do you need an experienced workout partner?

Who will not help you reach your goals? If you are serious about your aspirations and dreams, jettison the negative people clinging to you – only surround yourself with positive, uplifting and helpful people. Do not let anybody trample on your dreams – those who do are the ones you immediately need to leave behind when pursuing your aspirations.

Rise to the occasion that is your life – live it fully and purposefully. Take each day as positively and as intensely as possible, knowing that you may not get another chance. Pursue your dreams and goals hard. It’s your life, and you make what you want out of it – it’s a beautiful life, but it’s can be a hard life. Quit just talking about it, and go get it – live it on purpose. It’s your time.

Prioritize Your Health and Fitness
Every time you eat or drink something, you have an opportunity to do two things. You can either help yourself towards reaching your goals, or you can make things harder by working against your goals. If you are prioritizing your health and fitness, it makes sense to be making positive choices that are going to make achieving that success easier.

Think of it this way: when you are training hard, and you are almost at that level where you are going to vomit, think about the nutrients with which you are fueling your body. I can guarantee that you aren’t thinking about feeding your body fast food, desserts, and empty calories – all you want to do is make sure that you are giving your body the best fuel you can so that it make the workout easier!

Think that same thought the next time you are reaching for a food that isn’t going to help your health or fitness. Suddenly, the ‘pleasure’ of eating this food isn’t worth the pain of getting it off again. So each time you eat or drink something, ask yourself if you are putting your health first and helping yourself out. If you aren’t tell yourself that you are making it harder to achieve your goals by making a negative choice. You won’t want to be telling yourself all the time that you are making life harder for yourself and for your health goals. You are suddenly accountable for all your actions, and hopefully will make better decisions that will impact on your health and weight loss goals.

Do Something Everyday
You’ve got the eating and drinking under control, and now its time to get some movement happening. The key here, the minimum you are working towards, is to do something everyday. Now before you immediately say how you don’t have time, revisit our first tip, and get to prioritizing your health and fitness. The same goes for exercise; if you want to do it, and you are making it a priority, then you will make time for it. Do you watch any television? What about surfing on Facebook and other time killers across the Internet? There are at least 15 minutes per day in which you can get some sort of exercise.

Ideally you will be spending more than 5 minutes per day on exercise, but the point is to do something everyday – and it will begin to add up. Spend some time with the family at the park and walk there and back, go for a bike ride, jog around your neighborhood – it all works. The more you can do (within reason) the better, but we can start simply – do something everyday.

Now get out there and make it happen. Give yourself positive reinforcement each time you make a positive choice, and actively question yourself and attempt to get better when you are making bad choices. Your habits will change, and in time, so will your body. Be Well!

The physical and psychological commitment of going to the gym is hard enough for most people, so once you actually get there, you probably fall into the same habits, and find yourself on the same machines doing the same exercises. Guys, do you head straight for the bench press rack? Ladies, is your machine of choice the elliptical or the treadmill? It’s comfortable, and easy, and even though you finish without much sweating or actually doing any real hard work, you feel good and pat yourself on the back – at least you showed up.

Is your exercising routine stagnating?

This mentality is flawed. Time is valuable, and you are only as strong as our weakest points. When you are in the gym, you are devoting minutes of your precious day – minutes that could be spent elsewhere – to getting bigger, faster, or leaner. If you do things you like to do at the gym, eventually your body adapts and you stagnate. Then the worst thing of all happens – you start wasting your time.

No matter what your goal is in the gym, you have to do things you don’t necessarily like to do if want to go anywhere. The things you love to do are likely doing very little for you. The human body adapts quickly to any routine – usually within 4 weeks. You still might be able to see results, but your progress will be much slower if you stick to the exercises that are easiest for you. If you’re going to be in the gym in the first place, you might as well make it worth your while. After all, anything worth doing, is worth doing right.

So, when you’re in the gym next time, do one exercise you absolutely hate to do. You’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something great when you are done, and you will begin to mix up your routine and fight stagnation. Keep an open mind, do what is difficult, and Be Well!

Train your legs - or neglect half of your body and the majority of your power

Excuse #1: I do my legs when I’m doing my cardiovascular routine. Cardiovascular training, in general, is not going to provide the maximal training effect necessary to have your legs be in optimal shape. Cardiovascular training is rhythmic and repetitive in nature, and therefore provides minimal loads over long periods of time on the legs. Though this may help leg definition when you are just starting to exercise, it will not provide the best muscle shape and strength that resistance training your legs can provide. It’s great for the heart; for the legs, you can do much better training in much less time.

Excuse #2: I don’t want to train my legs because it makes me sore and makes my cardiovascular training more difficult. Resistance training your legs has been proven to strengthen cardiovascular performance over time. Ok, we will grant you that a hard lower body training day can make you more sore prior to your next cardiovascular day and decrease the performance – on that one day. This is an indication that you need to re-arrange your program, and not that you should skip legs entirely. Plan leg workouts to land before rest/recovery days. Or better yet, try doing your short cardio workouts before strength training on the same day as your leg routine once you’ve built up the stamina.

Excuse #3: I don’t want my legs to bulk up because my pants won’t fit any more. If your pants don’t fit because you’re in better shape, then more power to you. You should be proud. It is common for there to be some inflammation or building out of the muscle for a day or two after a workout. Don’t plan skinny jeans days to coincide with these days. But over time strength training should decrease fat on the leg and make a more densely compacted and shapely leg. You can anticipate that proper strength training of the lower body will increase the thickness and concavity of the glute muscles. The glutes are the powerhouse for all hip extension work, especially as you get into heavier faster movements. A strong, firm, outwardly rounding butt, is a healthy butt. Own it and love it!

On the whole, there are huge benefits towards developing full body strength and tone by including lower-body training workouts. Lower body resistance training can strongly increase your metabolism and help with weight loss. It will help to substantially improve your cardiovascular fitness and your calorie burn per workout session. Lifting lower-body will also enable you to be more strong throughout your musculature as more strength hormones will circulate throughout the body from training these large muscles. This may even improve your performance on upper body exercises. So, train legs and Be Well!

Ryan
Charlotte, North Carolina

Hey Ryan,
First, thank you for your service to the community! We love working with police, fire, EMS and other service personnel to help you guys perform your honorable duties. Your request gave us a great idea for a posting about police/fire workouts – so, in the next couple weeks, look for an entire post with some detailed information about exercises and tips for service personnel. That being said, there are a couple quick things to work on – most namely, speed and endurance.

Speed work is crucial for the times when you may need to chase down a suspect (we have all seen the episodes of Cops where several officers need to run down a faster, younger suspect!). Try sprinting different distances at top speed – 100 yards, 200 yards, 400 yards, and a mile as quickly as possible, simulating running after somebody faster than you. Longer distance sprints are crucial to build up the lung capacity needed in order to chase somebody.

At the end of each sprint, instead of just slowly breaking stride and cooling down, immediately drop down and to 10 push-ups. Here’s our thought on this: when you finally catch up to a suspect, the hard work of the chase has just begun – capturing, holding and handcuffing. So, at the end of each simulated chase (sprint), do something intense before cooling down – we know your lungs will be burning at that point, but in the real world, a suspect is not going to let you cool down before apprehension. Sprint 200 yards as fast as possible, and without hesitation, do 10 push-ups as intensely as possible, to simulate using strength and stamina at the end of a sprint to bring down a suspect.

Endurance is an often over-looked aspect of police and fire training. After all, how is running a couple of miles slowly going to make you a better law enforcement officer when suspects are either sprinting away from you, or fighting back? Endurance workouts (whether running, swimming or resistance training) build focus – and focus is of course a crucial aspect of police work. Hours on end go by tediously everyday for an LEO, until, without warning, an important and dangerous situation immediately arises from nowhere – if an officer is well-trained in endurance, he or she will be far more focused and alert when a serious situation arises.

Distance running (in this case, 2-5 miles) and long-distance swimming build up improved focus, alertness, and mental preparedness, especially for those who work long, often tedious hours (such as law enforcement personnel) with quick and dangerous situations escalating from seemingly nothing.

Self-Defense is another crucial aspect of police work, and one that you probably get quite a bit of training and conditioning with as an aspect of your job. Officers today are very well-trained and re-trained in self-defense work – we will not delve into this too deeply here as there are a myriad of ways to train – be on the lookout for this as part of our upcoming post on Service Personnel Training Regimens. Thanks for the letter, Ryan!
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Hi FS,
I am a mother of four young boys (ages 2, 4, 7 and 9), and I am worried about their nutrition and health in the future. It gets hectic around here, of course, and sometimes my husband and I cannot feed them the proper health food I know they should be getting. What are some things I can do? Thanks! I love reading your blog – that is, when I get the time to do it!

Thalia
Rock Hill, South Carolina

Hi Thalia,
Thanks for reading! We get questions like this quite a bit. We know that raising children is one of the most stressful, hectic and continuously busy endeavors a person can take on. Of course, it is very difficult to effectively feed your children the perfect balance of nutritious food in every meal – no matter the situation, there are going to be inevitable trips to McDonald’s, parties with too much birthday cake, and candy and carbonated drinks at school. So, what’s a mother to do? Here are a few simple tips to consider.

Children Emulate Their Parents – Look at your diet the past few years. Has it been full of healthy choices, balanced meals, and proper portions? Children emulate what they see on a daily basis, and this includes how they make their food choices. If they see their mother and father eating at a fast food restaurant, or enjoying large portions of cake, for example, they will emulate that as the proper way to eat. If you are eating a less-than-perfect diet, your children may be taking some cues from you when making their own food choices. Evaluate your own diet, and that of your husband – you may find some less than desirable food choices within your own diet. Children can pick up on that, and they will eat according to what they are presented with from their parents.

Children Eat What You Give Them – Yes, there are going to be trips to McDonald’s; that is inevitable, and nobody should be expected to be perfect. That being said, young children do not cook for themselves – instead, they eat what is in the house, bought by their parents. Are you buying the right food for them to consume at home? If you have only healthy and nutritious food stocked up in the pantry and refrigerator for the family, when it is time to make dinner, your family will be presented with only healthy food choices.

Children Love To Learn – Children are sponges. They soak up information, always ask “why,” and want to know as much about things as they can. So, use that to your advantage. Instead of forcing them to eat healthy food “because I said so,” teach them cool facts about the health food that they are eating. For example, did you know that in England in the 17th century, carrots were a fashion accessory, with women adorning the tops of their hats with the vegetable? Or that in 2005, carrots were revealed to be the third most popular vegetable in Britain? There are countless other facts about a ton of other health foods out there – learn and enjoy!

To conclude, Thalia, children eat what they see and know. Promote good eating habits by making healthy decisions for yourself and your husband – this, in turn, will teach your children the right way to eat and the proper way to live a healthy lifestyle. Thanks and be well!
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Hi!
When should someone (currently not me) see a physician after an intense workout session? For instance, what are the warning signs that someone has injured his/herself doing exercises? Would appreciate your take on this issue. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Linda
Denver, Colorado

Hi Linda,
We appreciate your support from so far away! The basic rule of thumb in self-diagnosing any kind of exercise-related injury is time. That is, take a few days to reevaluate yourself when thinking whether or not you have been injured while exercising.

Of course, in the first 48 hours after an unusually strenuous or different exercise program, you should expect the general soreness and stiffness to be the most intense. If you are intensely or sharply sore after those first 48 hours, there may be cause for some concern. If the intense soreness or sharp pain lasts four or five days, with the same intensity after a workout, it may be wise to consult a physician.

Remember, soreness after a workout is normal, typical and ideal. If you are sore, in most instances, it means the workout was effective, challenging, and working positively for your body. But if that soreness becomes more pronounced, or stays just as intense, after several days of rest, there may be something else going on within your body. Thanks for reading Linda, and be well!
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If you want us to answer your letter in our next edition of Letters From Our Readers, just e-mail us at info@fusionsouth.com with your question. We will post a new edition of Letters on the final day of every month. And, if your question was not answered here, it will be answered back to you through e-mail. So, do not hesitate to e-mail us your questions, and be well!

Exercisers who favor moderate to high intensities should take one day of rest per week to allow the body to rejuvenate and consolidate the gains of exercise. Exercise causes microtrauma to muscles, which get stronger when they repair themselves during rest. So, for these moderate to intense athletes and those who exercise harder than most, one day off from exercise per week is ideal.

Without proper recovery time, areas of wear and tear become weak links and are more prone to injury and, more importantly, less likely to show strength gains. So, while you might burn a few extra calories by not taking a day off, your body will be less efficient in capitalizing on the work you do. In most cases, you’ll only become cognizant of this accumulated stress if you exercise at a relatively high level. For example, maybe one day you can’t beat a regular opponent to the hoop like you did a couple weeks ago, or you struggle on a big hill climb that you recently handled with vigor.

Exercise is great - but overtraining can be costly

Don’t wait until you feel pain or weakness to rest- in fact, skipping rest days is the most common cause of overtraining injuries. Even if you don’t feel the sluggishness, the off day should affect you like a long weekend break from a high-pressure job. You’ll return to the gym, pool, track or trail notably more refreshed than when you left. Now, this being said, rest doesn’t mean lying prostrate, arms folded over chest and eyes shut all day like a hibernating bear. For someone who jogs regularly, an off-day could be a light swim. For a devoted weight lifter, it could be a casual bike ride or non-competitive basketball game.

For those who train hard, either for sports or to build stamina for other reasons, we urge periodization — variation in the amount and intensity of exercise — and some volume of rest regardless of your training cycles. Of course, you don’t want to rest too much and make it become counterproductive – but you do need to listen to your body and rest when applicable.

Those breaks from the daily exercise grind — including that all-important day off per week for regular exercisers not in serious training — maximize training gains while reducing the risk of overtraining. Working hard on your body is imperative; overdoing it to the point of injury or burn out is not. Be well to yourself and rest every once in a while!

Avoid these dangerous, ineffective and useless machines, programs, and devices – the only way to succeed in losing fat and building lean muscle is through hard work. Hard work can be overwhelming and intimidating, but it is the only option available for you if you wish to lose weight and truly live a healthier lifestyle.
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HydroxyCut | Absolutely Dangerous

Let’s start with the most dangerous one. There are countless things to say about HydroxyCut, and the claims that it makes as far as weight loss is concerned. All you really need to know (if you didn’t already) is this: on May 1, 2009, HydroxyCut was recalled by the Food And Drug Administration because it caused, among other things, liver damage, cardiovascular trauma and death.

Stay away from all weight loss pills – HydroxyCut, Hoodia, anything containing ephedra, and most other dietary supplements. If you must take one, please, please, please consult your trainer, nutritionist, and physician before beginning – most of them are dangerous, useless, and ultimately ineffective, anyways.

Electric Abdominal Belts |  The Laziest ‘Exercise’ You Can Do

This is one of the most ridiculous devices we have seen. Supposedly, wrapping a belt around your waist which sends electrical shocks to your core muscles will magically give you a six-pack and toned hips. The companies which promoted these products made claims including: 10 minutes with this device is the same as doing 600 sit-ups, and This device is 30 percent more effective than traditional exercise – both of which are ridiculous in and of themselves. First of all, electric stimulation (which many athletes use to help rehabilitate injuries) send such tiny charges to your muscles that it does not effectively build them at all.

But, the best litmus test for any fitness gimmick (which this one fails miserably) is the following: Can you simultaneously eat a pint of ice cream while “exercising” with the device? Yes? Then maybe, just maybe, this is a gimmick…It is also noteworthy and bizarre that some of these companies claim to be “FDA Approved,” even though their product is neither a food nor a drug.

Sauna Belts | Sweating Your Way To Stupidity

Instead of actually moving or contracting muscles to burn fat, the Sauna Belt claims to melt it right off like a form of some kind of thermal liposuction. What really irks us about the Sauna Belt, and sends it solidly into the Hall of Shame, is its complete and utter worthlessness. There are plenty of other fitness gimmicks that at least involve some sort of muscle contraction. The sauna belt offers a heated rubber belt which makes your stomach sweat – seriously, that’s all it does. Sweating is a good way to lose calories, but only if you are actually exerting effort when you sweat. The Sauna Belt simply sweats away excess water weight, and sheds no excess fat stores.

Based on our previous litmus test, above, the Sauna Belt also fails – simultaneously eating ice cream while “melting away fat” is not the way to true weight loss. Please don’t fall for this one!

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Friends, there are no shortcuts in the weight loss game. There are no gimmicks that will keep the weight off and help you learn the proper nutritional and fitness habits. You must take the time to teach your body how to eat, move, function, and live properly. Weight loss does not come in a pill, or a device you can strap around your waist. Do things the right way, and your body will thank you for years down the road. Be well!

Are you on the path to Nowhere?

At FusionSouth, we don’t care that you failed in the past. Nobody cares that you aren’t the same athlete you used to be, or maybe, the athlete you never quite became. We don’t care if you can’t do 10 push-ups, or if you can’t run a lap around a track before stopping. What matters is that each time you fall, you get right back up, more determined and more intense than before. You control your destiny; act like it.

Fitness comes easier for some people than it does others. If it is difficult for you to maintain a healthy weight and your desired body type, you must work that much harder than the next person out there. You need to leave no stone unturned, do everything you possibly can, and give everything you have and then some more. Be your own maker – don’t leave your health in the responsibility of any other person, and don’t make that next excuse you were thinking about. Within you, no matter who you are or what physical abilities you possess, is the ability to become a healthy, fit, and well-conditioned athlete.

It’s your body, and it’s your life. It’s your destiny. Are you fully committed? At times, we all feel as though we are on the path to Nowhere. But keep your head up; don’t let anybody get you down – if you do, that road you are on will begin to turn around. It’s not easy to go from Nowhere to Somewhere – nor should it be. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Cardiovascular exercises combined with a good nutrition plan should support any training effort to get perfect abs. Lots of health benefits result from aerobics and fat loss programs. Many people believe that the number of crunches matters most for perfect abs and a toned, flat stomach – but there is only half a truth in that opinion. The quality of the exercise, and the rest periods between workouts, can be just as important as the quantity of abdominal exercises you perform. Do as many exercises as you can – slowly – while keeping the muscles tight. Both the lift and the lowering down should be performed slowly for maximum of efficiency.

A six-pack is great - but it takes hard work and consistency!

It is equally important to be realistic in your effort to get the get perfect abs. Do not trust all the commercials with women and men that look artificially chiseled. There are no shortcuts on the path to a good body - you will not “earn” a good body in four weeks or less. It takes time. Compromises and shortcuts often serve for building personal image standards. Steroids and all sorts of supplements are often administered to stimulate the growth of the muscle mass. Normally, the genetic dowry should be enough for body shaping without artificial growth. Inflated ‘perfect’ abs are not the solution when you aim at good health and great looks – in your quest for perfection, you may find that there is no “perfect,” as you are constantly seeking to get better, no matter the current results.

As for the regular responsiveness to training, abdominal muscles are pretty easy to build through exercising. Even so, the dimension of the results greatly depends on your predisposition, your nutrition plan, the rest between training sessions and your lifestyle in general. Harmonious muscle development matches well with healthy eating and sleeping habits and with a certain degree of relaxation and positive thinking. Experts advise for a positive attitude and the definition of superior goals besides the average bodybuilding objectives, such as rejuvenation, vitality or health improvement.