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Abdominal Machines - Do They Really Work?

One recent health fad that has been popping up are the so called health products in the market. Many of them base on the fact that we are pressed for time to exercise & that we can do our daily activities like watching tv or reading a book while not breaking a sweat & exercising. Many common old wife’s tales are out there about exercise, weight management & its no surprise that these companies jump on the bandwagon to cash out on the need for people who want to lose pounds & inches fast without spending too much time & effort on exercise & proper diet control. Health experts keep droning on about diet and exercise, but are they overlooking an easier, simpler way to lose weight since more & more of these claims start popping up? What if, really you could burn calories and slim down without breaking a sweat? That’s the promise of many "passive exercise" devices such as therapeutic massagers and muscle stimulating devices. Just plug it in, strap it on, and watch the pounds melt away.

If you’ve seen the infomercials or read any of the Internet sites touting these products, it’s easy to think you’ve discovered a cutting-edge revolution in weight loss. But these devices aren’t anything new. In fact, claims for "effortless weight loss" are about as old as pineapples stopping a woman from getting pregnant. The packaging and marketing have evolved over the decades, but one thing has stayed the same: The devices have never delivered on their promises. Unless you are exercising your muscles, you are not expending energy. And if you’re not expending energy, you won’t lose weight. It’s as simple as that. In other words, "passive exercise" is a contradiction in terms. No device can help you effortlessly lose weight. And yet people continue to spend enormous amounts of money on this impossible dream. People are always looking for an easy way out & no doubt about it, it all goes down to the scientifically proven fact that exercise is the best form of health maintenance & weight control.

Here’s a look at 2 of the highly advertised gimmicks in the market: The Therapeutic Massager & Electro Muscle Stimulant.  You decide if they’ll trim your waist — or your wallet.

The Therapeutic Massager

Advertisements on the newspapers and television make it sound like the biggest medical breakthrough since penicillin. In addition to promoting weight loss, it supposedly boosts energy, strengthens the immune system, eases back pain, and cures allergies. All for slightly less than $500! With more and more shops popping up along heartland shopping malls, many fall to believe if an actor & actress swear by sitting on a chair that mimics the galloping of a horse, you would lose flab off your abdominals and start to have a figure like them.  Some swear by it that it does more than reduce fatty deposits on certain spots of the body, like easing aches and pains and relaxing the body. It is widely believed that the machine burns off pounds by putting the body in a "better state of balance." The machine also detoxifies the cells and helps cure learning problems.

Up close, this machine looks less than miraculous. There are many versions of it but commonly it is essentially a small box that surrounds the extremity albeit like a swimming float . You sit there, place your body-part in the machine, and let the machine do the kneading. Some have your body rock back and forth. (Judging from the advertisements, the machine is especially popular among attractive young women in unitards.) Sounds pretty amazing with its brilliant claims that it engages core muscles groups in your abs, back buttocks & inner thighs with no conscious exertion on their part. To it’s credit, it does improve blood circulation & no, we are not talking about the way the models gyrate their hips over the machine.

Electro Muscle Stimulant Devices

If you’ve wandered into the world of television infomercials lately, you’ve probably seen a pitch for something that zaps your midsection into shape with a popular television actress donning the equipment on her waistline. Most are slender belts that sends jolts of electricity to your muscles. With this device strapped around your midsection, you can feel your muscles twitch frantically, or "exercise" while you read a book, watch TV, or cook dinner. According to the ads, it strengthens muscles, trims the waistline, tones the butt, removes love handles, even flattens a stomach after pregnancy. Some claim that the oscillating motion distinguishes itself from conventional devices that rely merely on vibration thereby providing a well-balanced treatment, zapping away unwanted fats at your tummy, butt, thighs and other areas.

Most Electro Muscle Stimulants (EMS) that promise an intense workout without the sweat. An ad for one of the products, even claims that 45 minutes of muscle twitching is "equivalent to three hundred situps, one hundred pushups, and one hundred scissor lifts." If only it were true. EMS devices may help increase flexibility, but they can’t "tone" problem areas or melt way pounds. While EMS devices really do work muscles — unlike therapeutic massagers — it’s not enough to speed weight loss. It has been scientifically proven that any device or diet or exercise that promises to remove fat from just one part of the body is doomed to fail. Our genes determine where we store our fat, and no amount of wiggling or jiggling or twitching will change that. Men for instance, tend to pile up fat in the belly & women in the hips & arms. Very rarely do you see a man with flab dangling from the arms or men with hips & cellulite "cottage cheese" thighs.

- Jason Nah, is an experienced personal trainer in the business of helping people lose weight & get fitter for the last 7 years. He has trained many people from all walks of life from men trying to pass IPPT to highly conditioned triathletes to your average housewife. For more tips & info on how to get fitter, healthier & in a more fun effective way, visit his website www.bodyforpeople.sg

It has been quite a while since i last updated or posted something for my blog. Well, i have been pretty busy with life & getting over some stuff & plugging away in the grind of life. Quite an eventful end to last year & a hopeful beginning to a new year. I wouldnt say it was great… Many predicted that this year would be a great year… frankly, im skeptical, but still with fingers crossed, life will go on

Im still training my clients at Gallery hotel, www.bodyforpeople.sg is still up & running. Many things have been going on & i just love driving Mabel. Many people have enjoyed the ride on Mabel, if you smell what the Rock is cooking. Anyway, i have been writing for reservist NS men portal/website - www.miw.com.sg in their getting fit column so for more health & fitness tips, do go there to check it out. I will post some articles here, unedited & unvetted especially since when some touch on some touchy subject.

I havent updated my multiply blog yet though… still trying to get over the debacle which was my birthday par loading up some killer videos from youtube & metacafe. Have a whole load of photographs too but i will think twice of loading them up now that im still sore about what happened that day. Until then, Live Life… Live Well!

Slimming Centers  - Myth or Reality?

There are many common myths out there about exercise, weight management & its no surprise that there are many slimming centers out there cashing on the need for people who want to lose pounds & inches fast without spending too much time & effort on exercise & proper diet control. One look at the many newspapers would show the emphasis we put on getting in shape fast with many celebrities endorsing these products & packages putting their name on their line to these so called "lose weight fast" claims. The benefits & scientifically proven facts that health experts keep harping on about diet and exercise are clear but many times, no thanks to the media, we are bombarded by many claims from these advertisements, most commonly from slimming centers. More commonly with women previously, it is no longer taboo for men to seek help from slimming centers.

Just by reading the newspapers or seeing any of the television commercials touting these slimming center packages, it’s easy to fall in the trap that if these celebrities endorse these products, its probably because they swear by them. Yet there have been many grievances against these slimming centers. And many of these fraudulent claims go over the top by promising get slim quick results by purchasing & following the packages. The sad fact is many people continue to spend enormous amounts of money on this impossible dream. Ladies and gentlemen, the writing is clear on the wall. Unless you use your muscles in the form of exercise, you lose them & the metabolic rate drops. Your ability to burn fat is hampered. There is no way possible to lose that significant amount of weight in that period of time safely & permanently.  There haven’t been many well publicized cases of locally but over in the United States, many companies have been sued with false advertising.

CASE has listed down the top ten complaints by industries in 2005 (from January to October) and it is a well known fact that complaints against slimming centers are in this column. Many slimming centers have sought the help of celebrities with their before and after photos plastered on for dramatic effect in convincing the consumer that the slimming center have the most effective way of losing the most amount of weight in the fastest time, usually without exercise. Most are in packages that amount to thousands of dollars & that within a few days, with a strict change in diet plus the consumption of certain pills, you can get that sort of figure.

Most slimming centers usually prescribe to a form of pills, massage, strict diet and mild dehydration (like getting wrapped up) in order to achieve their claims. There are many kinds of weight loss - water, muscle & fat. There are many misconceptions that all one has to do is to join a slimming center, lay on the bed as they wrap and zap, and 3 months later getting a body better than Jennifer Garner. The wrapping and zapping is more of a spa treatment than a process to slim you. Some have machines with ultrasonic waves passing through the body, as they claim, to vibrate & loosen the fat in the body. Most of these gimmicks have minimal effect. The very most would be a heightened therapeutic sensation or a very mild exercise effect from endorphins released like after going through a massage.

These packages would still include a diet to follow which usually means a form of extreme diet plan which cuts down many important nutrients. Unless you have a certain medical condition or a metabolic disorder like a food allergy, you shouldn’t be paying thousands of dollars to someone giving you unsound dietary advice. Extreme crash dieting at at any given time & your metabolism might shut down. Many diet plans from slimming centers lower the intake of any of the nutrients mentioned above to change the water balance and subsequently the weight will be lost rapidly. That is why some diet plans from slimming centers dare to guarantee rapid weight loss because it is just water loss. Sad to say, water is easily gained after a diet plan has ceased as water balance will be re-established. Imagine yourself going to an expensive sauna. Hence the next time if someone tell you he or she has lost pounds from the diet within a week from the slimming center, the result is most likely to be short term. As for those pictures in the advertisements, there was previously a report in the papers of modeling agencies looking for talents who were flabby & overweight to model before photos for slimming agency advertisements. Any magazine editor will tell you about  the wonderful world of Photoshop editing when it comes to celebrity photographs.

Stick to the time trusted facts that sports scientists & doctors have been prescribing. The benefits of proper exercise & administration of diet is the most healthy and effective way of weight control. Get slim fast fad ads don’t work, period.

- Jason Nah, is an experienced personal trainer in the business of helping people lose weight & get fitter for the last 7 years. He has trained many people from all walks of life from men trying to pass IPPT to highly conditioned triathletes to your average housewife. For more tips & info on how to get fitter, healthier & in a more fun effective way, visit his website www.bodyforpeople.sg

One of me friends emailed me this article timely, juz when I needed such reminder every once in awhile, so I’m sharing it with everyone who’s reading this, read it all even if you’ve read it before, we need reminders ever so often due to our stressed out & hectic life. 

It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations).

What is this principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.

What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us.

We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic.

We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%.

How? ……….By your reaction.

You cannot control a red light. but you can control your reaction. Don’t let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.

Let’s use an example.

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just happened.

What happens next will be determined by how you react.

You curse.

You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus.

Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.

After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home.

When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? …. Because of how you reacted in the morning.

Why did you have a bad day?

A) Did the coffee cause it?

B) Did your daughter cause it?

C) Did the policeman cause it?

D) Did you cause it?

The answer is "D".

You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.

Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "Its ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

Notice the difference?

Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.

Why?

Because of how you REACTED.

You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.

Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle. If someone says something negative about you, don’t be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don’t have to let the negative comment affect you!

React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc.

How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off) Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them?

WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive?

Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it.

You are told you lost your job.

Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.

The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take outpour frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on.

Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse.

Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle.

The result?

Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. We all must understand and apply the 90/10 principle.

It CAN change your life!!!