RICHARD SEYMOUR'S/FIT SCHOOL.....LEAN FOR LIFE

Muscle will only responds in advanced
trainers or athletes with resistance. If the muscle is not
presented with new challenges ( resistance ) it has no reason to
adapt and grow. Your body has no reason to change( body ) composition ( burn fat, build lean muscle tissue ).

With H.I.G.T (high intensity group training) the basis is to stimulate new muscle
development by recruiting type two fibers, red also known as fast twitch muscle fibers. Fibers that will only come into play when the muscle becomes over loaded. I like to call these fibers the lazy muscle fiber, you red or fast twitch fibers. H.I.G.T does this in two ways. When you have taxed your muscle lets say with a set of dumbbell presses, most of the work was done with type one fibers,white, slow twitch...little to none of your type two "RED" muscle fibers came into play. This has been studied & proven by science, zeroed and molded into perfection by me.

By immediately moving from one multi joint exercise (exercises that recruit the most muscle fibers to perform the movement, IE: squats, dead lifts, rows, etc..) to the next, up to four different exercises for different body parts in a set, type
one fibers have become overworked and force type two fibers to come & assist, thus causing maximum damage and with proper nutrition & rest larger stronger muscle tissue. With consistency, change in overall body composition

The second way is with intensity, in my routine I achieve this with little to no rest between sets, all as I am increasing the weights on each set. Crazy? Not realy over time you adapt and can still increase the amount of weight you lift, it's just hard as hell to do and takes an open mind and thinking outside the box. So stick it out.

The body will respond two ways training this way. First, you will burn loads of calories and force the most important muscle in your body to work overtime. Your heart! Pretty much eliminating the need to do boring types of cardio to strip away fat and shed water. Secondly, with little to no rest you fatigue your type one fibers much faster than traditional one set and rest old school training. Thus conditioning your body to recruit faster, type two fibers. The muscle building lean for life, ripped as a Mother F@#!*! Type two ,fast twitch fiber!

My H.I.G.T training will keep you lean & muscular for life, not to mention it is challenging and fun to do, in time of course. At first you will be sending me hate mail.

Richard Seymour

EXERCISE BALL. ARE YOU READY FOR A NEW CHALLENGE?

Exercise balls are one of today's top fitness tools - and for good reason! Using an exercise ball will improve the strength of the abs and the lower back. Since the exercise ball is unstable you have to constantly adjust your balance, which in turn will improve your balance, proprioception and flexibility. As an extra challenge you can use the exercise ball as a bench using free-weights to target those hard to reach stabilizer muscles.

Fitness Benefits of Heavy Bag Training

A good heavy bag program strengthens your cardiovascular system, tones and strengthens your muscles, burns fat, increases bone density and connective tissue resilience. Not only can you get into great shape, but you can develop functional self-defense qualities at the same time.

By repeatedly striking and kicking the bag, you activate all of the major muscles groups in your body. The arms, shoulders, abdominal, and leg muscles must be coordinated and conditioned. This training also builds athletic qualities such as speed, power, balance, timing, and coordination. I incorporate my heavy bag work into my daily weight & fitness training.

Richard

Nutritional Superstars that keep the fat off!

Cheap comfort food and stress-induced binges are causing the numbers on people's scales to rise, even as their finances plummet. Here's a look at 10 foods that are nutritious and keep you lean at a low cost.
1. Apples
2.Bean's
3.lentils
4.Yogurt
5.oatmeal
6.Frozen spinich
7.Eggs
8.Lean pork
9.Parm-cheese
10.Air popped pop-corn

The truth about arm training

My rule on arm training goes against the standard practices and advice given my most trainers. Barbell curls as well as dumbbell curls certainly have a place in every ones routine, however to build strong well defined biceps I am certain most of you are leaving the most crucial bicep builder out of your current routine.

Chins! That's right the good old fashion chin-up will build a bigger stronger bicep than dumbbells and barbells alone. How you ask? Basic science tells us muscle grows with resistance, we all know it but few people in the gym and even athletes fully understand this. Truth is most trainers taking your money giving you advice don't.

Resistance & intensity are two keys when it comes to building lean muscle tissue and burning fat. Most of you, no just about all of you can not curl your body weight. But most of you can chin your body weight. I way 165 pounds. I can chin multiple times for multiple sets. However I can only curl 55 pound dumbbells and maybe 130 pounds with a barbell curl. So you see more resistance 165 pounds with a chin up will tax my biceps and force growth and functional strength much more than curling 55pd dumbbells.

If you cant perform 10 chin ups you have no business doing arm curls. learn to chin and do pull-ups, these basic exercises are some of the best going. You will reap the rewards.

Richard

Allentown's newest boxing gym

Former lightweight boxer Luis Melendez has plans to open another boxing gym in Allentown PA. More details to come. Feel free to contact Luis at lmelendez65@gmail.com

Triceps Dips

The dip is an exercise used in strength training. Normal, shoulder-width dips primarily train the triceps, with major synergists being the anterior deltoid, the pectoralis muscles (sternal, clavicular, and minor), and the rhomboid muscles of the back (in that order). Wide arm training places additional emphasis on the pectoral muscles, similar in respect to the way a wide grip bench press would focus more on the pectorals and less on the triceps.
Performing the Exercise
To perform a dip, the exerciser hangs from a dip bar with his arms straight and shoulders over his hands, then lowers his body until his arms are bent to a 90 degree angle, and then lifts his body up, returning to the starting position. Usually dips are done on a dip bar, with the exerciser's hands supporting his entire body weight as pictured.

Richard Seymour's/ High Intensity Group Training ( H.I.G.T )

Resistance & Intensity combined build muscle. Sorry, not long runs on a treadmill or lifting light weight for endless reps. Train that way and your body has no reason to change it's composition (burn fat, build lean muscle tissue, build functional strength. ) That is about as simple as I can make it.
A combination of heavy resistance, multi joint exercises up to four in one set ( group) and little to no rest between sets. This is the key to unlock the door to a lean muscular body, for life! H.I.G.T combined with boxing is an exciting and challenging way to train.

Richard

Richard Seymour's/Fit school....fighting fit

Here at AbFitt, I love to talk about the benefits of training like a fighter, Basic boxing techniques cover every aspect of athletic training. Aerobic exercises improve your heart rate, while jumping rope fosters speed and agility. The heavy bag demands strength, and the prolonged nature of the workout requires stamina, energy, and concentration. Fitness Boxing provides a safe, effective and fun workout for all fitness levels. A few techniques you will learn will include various Punches, Defense, Footwork and Equipment Training. Read on, the pages of Abfitt will get you in fighting condition for the ring or for life's everyday challenges.

Richard-

Creatine!!! Proven, effective and yes, safe!

Creatine is clearly one of the best studied nutritional supplements of all time!
With the increasing popularity of creatine among athletes, many scientists focused their studies on understanding the consequences of creatine supplementation. Consequently, since the early 1990s several hundred peer-reviewed scientific articles have appeared that have examined, or discussed, the implications of dietary supplementation with creatine monohydrate in humans and animals.

The fact that creatine monohydrate is one of the few nutritional supplements that has been clearly shown to provide an ergogenic benefit has made it the subject of intense scientific study and scrutiny. Paradoxically, the close attention that creatine has received from the scientific community has served to exaggerate any adverse consequences that it might possess.

Nonetheless, the latest research is showing that creatine supplementation is a relatively safe practice, especially when compared to other nutritional practices commonly employed in athletics. Moreover, creatine supplementation has been revealing some rather unexpected benefits at the cellular level that do not require an exercise stimulus in order to be manifested. Creatine supplementation is not without risks, however, and some discretion is in order

Ladies!!! Hello, are you listening?

Women that only concentrate on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. As far as the lifting of very light weights, this is just more nonsense. Muscle responds to resistance and if the resistance is too light, then there will be no reason for the body to change. Ladies train with weights hard and fast to achieve the body you want.

Katsidis VS Chavez April 4TH

Michael Katsidis (24-2)

The Australian brawler rebounded from back-to-back losses to Casamayor and Juan Diaz to easily outpoint Angel Hugo Ramirez on Jan. 31, setting up a showdown with former titlist Jesus Chavez on Golden Boy's all-lightweight PPV card. Katsidis is always worth the price of admission, win or lose.

H2O builds muscle, so drink it up.

How it builds muscle: Whether it's in your shins or your shoulders, muscle is approximately 80 percent water. "Even a change of as little as 1 percent in body water can impair exercise performance and adversely affect recovery. For example, a 1997 German study found that protein synthesis occurs at a higher rate in muscle cells that are well hydrated, compared with dehydrated cells. English translation: The more parched you are, the slower your body uses protein to build muscle.
Not sure how dry you are? "Weigh yourself before and after each exercise session. Then drink 24 ounces of water for every pound lost.
How it keeps you healthy: Men who drank five or more 8-ounce glasses of water a day were 54 percent less likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than those who drank two or fewer.

RICHARD SEYMOUR'S / Fit School...boxers do it, you should too.

What piece of exercise equipment sells for under $20, fits into a briefcase, can be used by the whole family, and improves cardiovascular fitness while toning muscle at the same time? And using it for just 15-20 minutes will burn off the calories from a candy bar? The answer: a jump rope.
Jumping rope is a great calorie-burner. You'd have to run an eight-minute mile to work off more calories than you'd burn jumping rope. Use the AbFitt Calorie Counter to figure out how many calories you'll burn for a given activity, based on your weight and the duration of exercise.
It's certainly good for the heart, It strengthens the upper and lower body and burns a lot of calories in a short time, but other considerations will determine if it's appropriate for an individual.
Rope-jumping as something fit adults can use to add spice to their exercise routine. You're putting direct stress on knees, ankles, and hips, but if done properly it's a lower-impact activity than jogging.

Women's Weight Training Myth's exposed!

Photo courtesy of Mojofit:

Women's Weight Training Myth #1 -Weight training makes you bulky and masculine.
Due to the fact that women do not, and cannot, naturally produce as much testosterone (one of the main hormones responsible for increasing muscle size) as males do, it is impossible for a woman to gain huge amounts of muscle mass by merely touching some weights. Unfortunately, the image that may come to your mind is that of professional female bodybuilders. Most of these women, unfortunately, use anabolic steroids (synthetic testosterone) along with other drugs in order to achieve that high degree of muscularity. In addition, most also have good genetics coupled with an unbelievable work ethic that enable them to gain muscle quickly when they spend hours in the gym lifting very heavy weights. Believe me when I say that they do not look like that by accident. Women who conduct weight training without the use of steroids get the firm and fit cellulite-free looking body that you see in most fitness/figure shows these days.

#2 - Exercise increases your chest size.
Sorry girls. Women’s breasts are composed mostly of fatty tissue. Therefore, it is impossible to increase breast size through weight training. As a matter of fact, if you go below 12 percent body fat, your breast size will decrease. Weight training does increase the size of the back, so this misconception probably comes from confusing an increase in back size with an increase in cup size. The only way to increase your breast size is by gaining fat or getting breast implants.

#3 - Weight training makes you stiff and musclebound.
If you perform all exercises through their full range of motion, flexibility will increase. Exercises like flyes, stiff-legged deadlifts, dumbbell presses, and chin-ups stretch the muscle in the bottom range of the movement. Therefore, by performing these exercises correctly, your stretching capabilities will increase.

Myth #4 - If you stop weight training your muscles turn into fat.
This is like saying that gold can turn into brass. Muscle and fat are two totally different types of tissue. What happens many times is that when people decide to go off their weight training programs they start losing muscle due to inactivity (use it or lose it) and they also usually drop the diet as well. Therefore bad eating habits combined with the fact that their metabolism is lower due to inactivity, and lower degrees of muscle mass, give the impression that the subject’s muscle is being turned into fat while in reality what is happening is that muscle is being lost and fat is being accumulated.

Myth #5 - Weight training turns fat into muscle.
More alchemy. This is the equivalent of saying that you can turn any metal into gold; don't we wish! The way a body transformation occurs is by gaining muscle through weight training and losing fat through aerobics and diet simultaneously. Again, muscle and fat are very different types of tissue. We cannot turn one into the other.
Women's Weight Training Myth #6 - As long as you exercise you can eat anything that you want.
How I wish this were true also! However, this could not be further from the truth. Our individual metabolism determines how many calories we burn at rest and while we exercise. If we eat more calories than we burn on a consistent basis, our bodies will accumulate these extra calories as fat regardless of the amount of exercise that we do. This myth may have been created by people with such high metabolic rates (hardgainers) that no matter how much they eat or what they eat, they rarely meet or exceed the amount of calories that they burn in one day unless they put their mind to doing so. Therefore, their weight either remains stable or goes down. If you are confused about nutrition, please read Nutrition Basics.

Myth #7 - Women only need to do cardio and if they decide to lift weights, they should be very light.
First of all, if you only did cardio then muscle and fat would be burned for fuel. One needs to do weights in order to get the muscle building machine going and thus prevent any loss of muscle tissue. Women that only concentrate on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. As far as the lifting of very light weights, this is just more nonsense. Muscle responds to resistance and if the resistance is too light, then there will be no reason for the body to change.

Women Should Train Hard
I have trained with girls (my wife in particular) that train as hard as I do and they look nothing but feminine. If you want to look great, don't be afraid to pick up the weights and lift hard!

Knock out dog fighting with AbFitt & Knockoutdogfighting.org

AbFitt and Former world champion boxer Steve Cunningham of Philadelphia are supporters of www.knockoutdogfighting.org
Educating young people of the abuse and misuse of man's best friend. Log on for more information. www.knockoutdogfighting.org

BE ANYTHING, JUST DON'T BE AVERAGE

Are you above average? Of course you are. You are here at my site, so even if you are not above average that is a great way to start being above average. I am the creator of AbFitt and the training program H.I.G.T, the primo purveyor of above average everyday fitness. I would like to invite you to look through my work and learn a little more about what I do and what I believe works as well as some of my ideas about training & health.
There should be something for everyone. I will leave those choices up to you, but I hope you take time to look through it all. If not come back. The site will still be here promoting H.I.G.T ( High intensity group training ) fitness, healthy eating and supplementing.

Richard

Think of food as fuel, for a lean healthy body!

When it comes to food, the wrong habits can be disastrous. Here's how to help yourself eat better and have more energy.

Bad habit: Skipping meals

Letting yourself get too hungry is one of the worst things you can do if you're trying to lose weight. When you finally do eat, you're likely to gobble down too much. It's also much harder to make good choices if you're ravenous.

Fix it: Eat breakfast and then refuel every four to five hours. If you rarely stop once your day begins, plan what you'll eat. Consider easy options like microwaveable healthy meals, low-fat cottage cheese and fruit, or a high-fiber nutrition bar and a container of nonfat Greek yogurt. The healthy carbs and lean protein will provide long-lasting energy.

Bad habit: Eating out all the time

Restaurants are a caloric minefield. Portion sizes can be huge, and chefs often have a heavy hand with salt, fat, and sugar.

Fix it: If you can't cook at home, limit the damage. Avoid alcohol, which contains empty calories and loosens inhibitions, making it tougher to order wisely. Stick with water or have a glass of wine or a light beer if you really want a drink. Tell the waiter not to bring the bread basket, and order a salad instead. This will help curb your appetite. Ask for olive oil and vinegar on the side and go light on the oil. Next, pick a lean protein entrée, such as fish or chicken, and choose preparation methods that use little fat, such as poaching, grilling, or broiling.

Bad habit: Eating when you're not hungry

Snacking even though you are full makes the pounds add up.

Fix it: The next time you're about to pop something into your mouth, assess your hunger level. If you're not truly hungry, don't eat. If you're a little peckish, allow yourself to get a bit hungrier. When you do sit down to eat, adhere to the Japanese saying hara hachi bu, which means "eat until you are 80 percent full." Chances are that in 15 to 20 minutes, you'll be perfectly satisfied.

Richard Seymour's Fit/School....kid's fitness

Today, kids fitness training is important more so than in years past, because kids do not always have the exercise or healthy meals that they need. This has become a problem with obesity and poor health conditions. Some fitness centers even offer the services of a personal trainer for children.

There is another way to keep kids healthy without spending money on personal trainers and fitness centers. Most recreation departments and schools have programs set up during the year for kids to workout, play group games, and just do things that interest them.

Recreation Department Activities
School Programs
Kids Fitness Training Centers
Boxing and Other PAL Programs

Fitness and a fierce passion to win helps good old boy Nicky Hayden stay in the chase for MotoGP supremacy

Getting Fit for GP
The physical demands on MotoGP riders are immense, though often under appreciated. "Stick and ball athletes don't really think of us as athletes, which is a shame," says pro Nicky Hayden. To stay track fit, Hayden has worked with personal trainer Aldon Baker. Here's his program:
CARDIO VERSUS BULK
"You can't be some big beefcake guy, that'll just slow your acceleration down," says Hayden. Baker's program has him doing a mix of cardio every day. The workouts involve a mix of endurance and high-intensity running and cycling. Nicky has a stationary bike set up in his garage.

POWER YOGA
"Nicky needs more flexibility because he's gotta stay in a weird position for the race," says Baker. An added benefit of the yoga is that it helps Hayden control his breathing, which is important for staying relaxed on the track.

STRENGTH WORKOUTS
Hayden is in the gym approximately three times a week. "I'm all about doing combination exercises," says Baker, who favors stepups with dumbbells instead of squats and adding leg curls to a stability-ball bridge.

Manny steps up training

Manny Pacquiao can always get away with a few more rounds when Freddie Roach is not around.

The other day at the Wild Card Gym, what was supposed to be short, nice and easy four rounds of mitts with Buboy Fernandez turned out to be an almost non-stop 10-round session.

Roach is in England to be in the corner of his other protégé, Amir Khan, who takes on Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera on March 14 at the MEN Center.

Roach has been away for almost a week now, and when he returns to his Hollywood gym on Monday Pacquiao should be ready to begin sparring for his May 2 bout with Ricky Hatton.

Create lean, well defined , sexy shoulders.

Target the three heads of your deltoid muscles to create sexy, curvy shoulders.

WHY IT WORKS
Located at the tops of your arms, your deltoid muscles have three distinct heads: the anterior (front), lateral (side) and posterior (rear), which come together to form a triangle. It's important to work all three heads of the deltoids to develop an even, rounded contour, says this month's featured trainer, Irene McCormick. "Most women tend to focus on what they see in the mirror and neglect their rear shoulders," McCormick says. With her trio of exercises, shown here, you can sculpt the front and sides of your shoulders while also firming up the accessory muscles that underlie the soft, underdeveloped area under the back part of your bra strap.

MUSCLE MECHANICS
The three exercises featured on this page are designed to target your deltoid muscles. While the three heads of the deltoids have different origins, they all attach on your upper arm. The anterior head originates at your collarbone. Its primary role is to raise your arm up and forward and rotate it inward. The posterior head attaches to your shoulder blade and acts primarily to move your arm backward and rotate it outward. The lateral head, which is located between the other two heads, primarily works to lift your arm out to the side as well as to assist the anterior and posterior heads in their movements.

1. Overhead Press

Strengthens middle and anterior deltoids and trapezius (upper back)

2. Incline Rear Fly

Strengthens posterior deltoids

3. Shoulder Raise

Strengthens anterior and lateral deltoids

The Need to Train Like A Man, Especially if you are a Woman

Come on ladies! Are you sick of watching men do pull-ups and you can't even do one? I know my wife was. She now does more than most men, and she has the build of a fitness model not a body builder.

As a fitness coach I stay current with the latest developments. I am always looking for workouts to stay in shape that are not only effective, but also fun. Since most of my clients are more concerned with having a lean physique than with developing real strength, it's been a challenge to convince them that training for strength is an excellent way to become leaner.

Many women have the illusion that if they even glance at free weights, they will end up looking like Arnold's long lost twin sister. As a result, women flock to aerobics classes and exercise machines every year with the hope of discovering the holy grail of fat loss.

I do not have to tell you what the end result is.

Think I am being too harsh? Go to an aerobics class today and take a mental note of the class. Now go back in a month and take a look at the results. See what I mean?

Results that are noticeable do not come from just cardiovascular exercise. Make no mistake about it, the best way to get a lean, sexy, and a well defined physique is with heavy weights and low reps.

Complete Core Training

The best exercises don't have to be "new" to be effective. I think we can all agree that big, basic exercises like squats, deads, and pull-ups should be the cornerstone of any program. One of the great things about these exercises is the fact that they work to integrate the body into a functional whole, and higher-end core training should be no different.

5 Foods You Should Eat Every Day

1. Spinach
For $1.50, the price of a large bag of spinach at most grocery stores, you can reduce your risk of developing osteoporosis, lower your cholesterol, and raise your I.Q. Spinach is an excellent bone-builder, containing vitamin K, calcium, and magnesium. It's also high in flavonoids, plant molecules that act as antioxidants, which have been shown to prevent breast, stomach, skin, and ovarian cancer. Spinach is a great source of vitamin A and vitamin C, which not only keep you from getting sick in the winter, but also de-clog your arteries and reduce heart disea

2. Eggs
In the Snackwell-crazed '90s, dieters feared eggs because of their fat and cholesterol content and suffered through millions of tasteless egg-white omelets. But research has shown little, if any, connection between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol, and the humble egg is finally being recognized for the remarkably complete set of nutrients it provides. It makes sense: Something that contains the ingredients for an entire life can give you the fuel you need to get through the morning.
Eggs are a great source of protein, containing all eight amino acids (if you eat the whole thing). As any healthy dieter knows, protein is essential for staying full and having energy.

3. Blueberries
A Tufts University study found blueberries were the number one source of antioxidants among 60 fruits and vegetables analyzed. Blueberries contain antioxidants that can (get ready): prevent ulcers, cataracts, and glaucoma; decrease risks of heart disease and various types of cancer; and lower cholesterol. They can also reduce aging of the brain, keeping your memory sharp and diminishing the effects of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

4. Apples
Eating an apple a day can keep all kinds of doctors away, from physicians to dentists. Apples contain both insoluble and soluble fiber, which not only make them filling, but also work double time to reduce cholesterol. Some doctors even recommend drinking apple juice after eating a fatty meal to reduce the food's negative effects on your body. Apples have been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease. And if that's not enough to make you bite into a Fuji or McIntosh, consider this: Chewing apples stimulates saliva, which scrubs stains off your teeth and freshens breath instantly.

5. Winter Squash
One cup of winter squash provides 170 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin A, a nutrient necessary for night vision that's hard to find in other foods. Squash's bright orange color comes from a high dose of carotenoids, antioxidants that prevent eye degeneration due to aging and filter out carcinogenic light rays. Makes you think of jack-o'-lanterns in a new "light," doesn't it?
Roast the seeds alongside the flesh and you'll reap a host of other benefits. Winter squash seeds contain a significant amount of L-tryptophan, which can help to prevent depression. They're also a rich source of magnesium, a mineral Americans don't consume nearly enough that's vital to almost every bodily function. Eating your daily dose of magnesium will lower your risks for heart disease, abdominal obesity, and diabetes.

GET MOVIN, TO GET LEAN!

"Exercise is the only real fountain of youth that exists, It's like the oil-and-lube job for your car. You don't have to do it, but your car will definitely run better." Study after study has documented the benefits of exercise to improve mood, mental acuity, balance, muscle mass, and bone health. "And the benefits kick in immediately after your first workout. Don't worry if you're not a gym rat. Those who see the biggest payoffs are the ones who go from doing nothing to simply walking around the neighborhood or local mall for about 30 minutes a day. Building muscle with resistance training is also ideal, but yoga classes can give you similar strength-training effects if you're not into weight lifting.

Walk the fat off. Richard Seymour's/Fit School

Forget crunches. For a workout that really flattens your belly, get up and move your feet. Studies show walking is one of the best ways to shed belly fat, in less time than you think. Researchers reviewed 40 years of studies on exercise and belly fat and found that just 2 1/2 hours of brisk walking a week—about 20 minutes a day—can shrink your belly by about 1 inch in four weeks.

Why does walking work so well? It appears to help reduce deep belly fat (called visceral fat) first, explains Tim Church, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. "If you exercise enough to lose 10 percent of your body fat, you may actually reduce visceral fat by 30 percent," says Church.

All walking burns belly fat, but for best results, crank up your weekly MET (metabolic equivalent) hours—the number of calories you burn. "Shaking up the intensity with on-again, off-again bursts of energy will give you the most time-efficient, calorie-burning workout possible," says exercise physiologist Peggy Pletcher of Source Endurance, an online coaching service based in Austin, Texas.

Walk 20 minutes a day with our workout and your waistline may shrink an inch; double it and double your results. Or go an hour and lose inches everywhere. Try our belly-flattening strength moves and smart eating tips and you could drop a size or more this month!

David Beckham: Loan is up on March 9

The David Beckham saga took another twist tonight when Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena insists the England midfielder is expected back in the United States next week.

But Beckham's team mates don't seem to share their coach's certainty that he'll return to LA when his AC Milan loan spell expires.

Despite speculation that an agreement was close between the Galaxy and AC Milan to allow Beckham to stay on loan with the Italian club until mid-July, the former Manchester United player was named in the Major League Soccer club's 24-man roster for the forthcoming season, which starts later this month.

Beckham, who wants to stay in Italy's Serie A, is due back in LA when his two-month loan agreement with Milan expires and Arena told the Los Angeles Times today that nothing had altered as far as he was concerned.

Building the perfect body

Weight Training


Moving past the cardiovascular forms of training, next you come to weight training. Weight training is the type of exercise which will typically have the greatest effect on your long-term metabolic rate, therefore is the one you should really focus on if you hope to control your bodyweight months down the road.

The actual calorie burn during the weight training session itself can vary highly depending on the intensity and the types of exercises you are performing during it, but generally you can expect about five to ten calories per minute.

The more important part of the equation though comes with the after calorie burn. First, since weight training itself is an anaerobic activity, you are going to get the increased metabolic rate in the hours after you are finished, particularly if you're training with intensity and not using very long rest periods (say rest periods of between thirty seconds to one minute).

This will place that session on a similar scale to that of an interval session in terms of boosting the metabolic rate in the hours afterwards.

In addition to that, weight training will help your body generate more lean muscle mass tissue (provided enough calories are consumed), which then increases your basal metabolic rate 24 hours a day.


This is what we really are referring to when we speak about long-term weight maintenance and why weight training is so vital. If you are performing a solid weight training program on a regular basis, you're going to build the larger amounts of muscle mass, which is a primary determinant in basal metabolic rate.

Fight free radicals, reduce stress, and brighten your mood — the all-natural way

Ginseng

What it is: An extract made from the roots of the ginseng plant—a type of medicinal foliage that dates back to prehistoric times.

What it does: Calms frayed nerves. Experts call ginseng an adaptogen, meaning it may help increase your body's resistance to stress. "If I had to recommend just one supplement, ginseng would be it.

Ginkgo Biloba

What it is: A concentrated powder made from the ginkgo tree's leaves.

What it does: Many guys on antidepressants experience, um, unforeseen side effects? You know, in bed? Ginkgo can help by improving circulation, which could also mean better short-term memory thanks to increased blood flow to the brain.

St. John's Wort

What it is: A yellow flowered plant first used medicinally in ancient Greece; buy it in capsules, teas, or liquid extract.

What it does: "St. John's Wort is mostly used to treat mild to moderate depression. If you're bummed because you just broke up with your girlfriend, feel free to give it a shot. It may pick you up.

Grape Seed Extract

What it is: Just what it says—an extract from the seeds needed to grow a grapevine.

What it does: Its antioxidant properties fight free radicals, compounds that pop up when you smoke or drink too much. "If people are exposed to a lot of toxins, an antioxidant may help counteract their damage.

Spirulina

What it is: A type of algae that comes packed with chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, and protein.

What it does: Think of spirulina as a produce replacement, giving you the nutrients from fresh greens without a salad bar. "If you're not getting five servings of fruits and veggies, "spirulina could be a good substitute."