Strengthen Your Back and Abdominal Muscles With 2 Simple Exercises

There are two key areas in the body that most people tend to ignore. They are your abdominal or core muscle groups and your back muscles. These two muscle groups are very important and should not be ignored.

Your abdominals are groups of complex muscles that run along the side and middle of your abdominal area. Your abdominals are used in some way every time you move your body. They support the spinal column and ensure it maintains its unique S shape. A strong abdominals will ensure you move efficiently and effectively. With a strong central core you will reduce your risk of injury when doing strenuous physical activities or lifting heavy weights. A strong and flexible back is also essential to a healthy functioning body. It ensures you have a good posture to avoid back pain.

The following are two great exercises that you can use straight away to build a stronger back and abdominal muscles.

The Spine Plank

This is a variation of the traditional plank exercises however, rather than facing down your body is facing upwards. The supine technique targets your glutes, the stabiliser muscles in back as well as your shoulder muscles.

To begin the exercise lay with your back against the surface of the floor. Raise your upper torso by extending and straightening your arms. Extend your legs out in a straight line. At this point your whole body weight should be supported by your arms and the heels of each foot. Keep a steady straight line from your neck to your feet. Gaze upwards towards the ceiling. Hold the position for as long as you can.

Balancing On An Exercise Ball

As the title suggests you will need an exercise or Swiss ball for this routine. This exercise will give your core muscles a good work out.

You need to be kneeling on the ball with your back and torso straight and with your arms fully extended outwards. It can be a little tricky to get to this position especially if you are doing it for the first time. It is advisable that you find someone who can support you while you position yourself on the ball. Alternatively, use the side of a wall for support while you acquire the desired position. Once you are at the kneeling position you have to maintain your balance as steady as you can. However, gravity and the ball will be working against you. In the beginning you will have to constantly adjust in order to keep steady.

Make sure you do a warm up before doing any physical exercises. Always consult a doctor or physician for advice before doing any new exercise program if you have a medical condition or injury.

5 Fun Ways to Burn 200 Calories

When you want to lose weight, reducing calorie intake is one part, but also consider burning some extra calories through activity. There are many ways to burn 200 calories for example, you do not necessarily need to go to the gym or go for a run. Often people are dreading doing some exercise but do not consider that also any other activity that makes you break a little sweat can increase your overall energy expenditure for that day. So, let's have a look how we can increase our metabolism while having fun at the same time.

1) Ice skating burns 200 calories in 20 minutes

When have you last been ice skating? Yes, I know it seems we don't have these winters any more that we remember from our childhood. Ice cold weather, blue sky, some snow and the lakes are frozen. At those times we were dying to get out there and it really was fun! Now, you don't need to wait for the next winter as I am sure there is some indoor ice skating available close to you. Find out where and take your whole family!

2) Inline Skating burns 200 calories in 25 minutes

This is somewhat similar to Ice Skating, but the good part is you do not have to do it in the cold! Just go out, put you inline skaters on and off you go. Locate very smooth tarred roads, that will make it lot's of fun and you really can get quite fast on inline skates, so better don't forget to wear protection!

3) Dance for 30 minutes to burn 200 calories

Now you know what all the time spend in the night clubs was good for after all! You might not have found the love of your life, but at least you had burned some calories while trying to impress to opposite sex. For burning those extra calories you don't need to spend money on the entrance fee, just put on some good music and shake you body!

4) Go shopping for 60 minutes to burn 200 calories

Girls, you can do this, can't you! And now you don't even need an excuse any more, just off you go to burn some extra calories. Your partners surely would want you to be slim and toned?

5) Play Frisbee for 60 minutes to burn 200 calories

This feels of course a bit more like exercise than shopping, but it really can be fun. So when you next time go to the beach or pack your picnic basket to go to the park, remember to take that Frisbee disk with you. Even your dog might join in!

Want more? Here are 50 ways to burn 200 calories

Permanent Weight Loss - The Secret the Diet Companies Don't Want You to Know

The weight loss/diet industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Judging by the myriads of commercials and ads we're constantly inundated with, it appears that all they want to do is help us lose weight. In reality, they have no interest in helping you lose weight - they're in it to make money on you. Lots of money.

You see, they know that the odds of someone losing weight with their products and keeping it off are astronomical. But they'll never tell you that. Think about it - when was the last time you saw a weight loss commercial that showed their spokesperson 10 years after they started the diet? Or even 5 years.

It's no different from those "become a millionaire in real estate" commercials you see late at night. The fine print is always the same as with weight loss products: "Results are not typical".

Don't get me wrong - you can actually lose weight with diet products/plans, but that's not what the main issue is. The issue is, how do you keep it off? Because there is a secret to keeping it off that most people aren't aware of. This is the secret that the weight loss giants will suppress at any cost, because should it become common knowledge, they would all go out of business.

I want you to pay really close attention to what you are about to read, because it will change the way you diet forever.

First, let's kill off a myth: You do not get fat because you don't exercise. It's simply not true. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals every day. And that is a lot easier to do that than it sounds. In fact, if you ignore this little fact, you'll end up storing most of the calories you eat as fat tissue - no matter how much you exercise and starve yourself in between.

Another shocking fact: Using a low calorie diet is pointless. Did you get that? I'll say it again - it is pointless. Period.

Why? 

Because your own metabolism's response to ANY drop in calories is to READJUST ITSELF to burn fewer calories each day.

Example: Let's say you drop your intake from 4000 to 2,500 calories per day. Your metabolism will promptly adjust itself so that your body now starts to burn only 2,500 calories per day.

This is why your diets always fail in the long run. It's the same reason why your friends can eat 3000 calories a day and not gain any weight, while you gain weight by eating 800 calories a day. But it doesn't have to be that way.

The system behind this knowledge has been nick named "Fat loss for idiots", because this 10-step system to permanent weight loss is so basic and simple that literally anyone can do it. It is the end of dieting and the beginning of something you didn't think was possible: Permanent weight loss.

Click here to learn those 10 steps to permanent weight loss.