Interesting Perspective on the History of Ironman Magazine

I apologize in advance if you can't read what's below, as it's an embed from a Facebook post from a friend of mine (Ken O'Neill), talking specifically about how the magazine just let go another friend of mine (Jerry Brainum).

You should see the post right above. If you can't read it, go follow Ken on Facebook and login.

How To Get Rid of Manboobs

3 quick questions:

1. Are you a guy or do you know one close to you over the age of 35?
2. Have you or he looked at your/his bare chest lately?
3. If so… did you see them?…The dreaded…. “Manboobs?”

Obviously if you are female this is not an issue.

But for us men, “gynecomastia”, often jokingly referred to as manboobs (we can thank “Seinfeld” for that), is anything but funny.

From this point on, I'll refer to it as “MB” if that's okay by you. MB is not an age thing. It can occur at almost any time in life. However, for those of us over 35, it is more common. This is just one of the many symptoms of “andropause,” or “male menopause.”

When you age, your testosterone levels decline…and more than that the testosterone gets “weaker” due to an imbalance between it and estrogen.

When you combine that with our modernized “estrogen-rich” environment that Dr. Holly Lucille frequently lectures on, you have a problem. A big MB problem. MB is associated with lack of drive (you know what I'm talking about guys) and excess bellyfat due to the estrogen.

Even more serious: Excess estrogen has been positively linked to prostate cancer. Yep. MBs are not so funny after all.

Check out Dr. Lucille's NaturaPause Audios. There is an entire audio dedicated to male menopause and natural solutions that really work. Most do not work worth a darn.

Hers does. http://www.naturapause.com/aff/billspaced <— no more MBs!

How To Build Muscle and Lose Fat Simultaneously

I often get the same, or similar, questions asked over and over again, and in the spirit of sharing, I've reprinted the article below that I wrote for GoArticles that addresses the question, “How do I build muscle and lose fat at the same time?”
I also call it, “Diet and Exercise are your one-two punch against the paunch!”

Generally speaking, when I get questions via email or a contact me form, I reply. I will NOT stop doing that! I will continue to answer your questions on an individual basis as long as I can keep up with them!

However, since this one seems to be a persistent question, I'll answer it here and now. I am absolutely SURE that a lot of you have a similar question. So, here goes.

We always want to be able to have cake and eat it, too. In the bodybuilding world, this means that we want to build muscle and lose bodyfat all at the same time.

It is, of course, possible, but it's very difficult to lose bodyfat while adding muscle. Competition bodybuilders often do this, so it's a fact that it CAN be done. However, it's very demanding, both physically and mentally. I will mention an alternative approach that is actually easier and better. That is to say, start a growth phase for 3-6 weeks followed by a “ripping up” phase for 2-3 weeks. But if you want to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously, follow these steps.

Your diet is the most important aspect of your bodybuilding regimen. In fact, it may be 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent training. Your nutritional program will consist of very high protein from sources like nonfat milk, eggs, beef, chicken, and fish. For the first two weeks, refrain from eating bread or potatoes and other starchy or complex carbs, other than from vegetables. You will drop a considerable amount of bodyfat the first two weeks, then your losses will taper off. In week 3, add in small amounts of bread and potatoes as well as fruit. Stay away from juice. While it may be highly nutritious, it is too concentrated and you can kill your caloric intake with just a few cups. Also refrain from weight gain shakes.

Instead, pick up a meal replacement powder like MetRx. Mix up some in the morning with water and carry with you throughout the day, sipping every 15 to 20 minutes. Use these for your pre- and post-workout meals, too.

For your weight training, you will have to concentrate on building as much mass as you can. Do complex movements like Squats, Bench Presses, and Deadlifts. The idea here is to stimulate as much muscle growth in as very little time as possible. Do a 3-way split routine, training the legs on Monday, the back on Wednesday, and chest on Friday.

Fit in shoulders, arms, and calves wherever they fit best. On non-weight days, do some form of cardio. It doesn't really matter whether it's running, cycling, walking, or some other form of aerobic activity. I suggest you mix intervals in with a more traditional approach. If you follow these simple guidelines, you can build muscle and lose bodyfat simultaneously.

It's certainly difficult, but not impossible. And it's more mental than physical. If you want to learn more about building mass, check out the Hardgainer's Manifesto, a system devised to help hardgainers build more muscle mass.

About the Author

Bill is the creator of Hardgainer's Manifesto, a bodybuilding system designed specifically to address the particular needs of hardgainers.

Build Lean Muscle Mass

For many people, gaining weight is quite easy. Just look at most Americans. It's losing weight that is difficult.

However, even though millions of people are chronically overweight, they're “under-muscled.” The objective of this post is to change that.

To build lean muscle mass, you have to take on a serious weight training and diet regimen. Hopefully, you are starting from a point where you are relatively lean or just need to drop a few pounds of body fat. But if you're seriously overweight, you can still follow the prescription I'm about to give; just realize that it's going to take some time and a lot of effort to see lasting results.

All that said, it's pretty easy to build lean muscle mass.

How to Build Lean Muscle Mass

These are some general guidelines to follow. You can check out Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day for an in-depth view of how to put it all together. Note that you need to do some form of cardio in order to supercharge your calorie-burning efforts. Here's what I propose:

• Follow the Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day system.
• Add 30 minutes every single day of cardio. It can be fast walking, running (not jogging, too hard on the joints), cycling, or active hiking. I prefer mountain biking, but you can do anything you want as long as you do it hard for 30 minutes.
• Eat frequent, small meals. The idea here is to maintain blood sugar levels so that you don't get hungry and don't burn muscle for fuel.
• Add 4 Fat-Loss Secret Ingredients to your diet.
• If you cannot prepare 6 meals a day, buy a meal replacement supplement like MetRx. You really cannot afford to miss meals.
• Portion control is king! Don't eat a lot. Use smaller bowls, plates, and utensils.
• Eat slowly. You may feel like you're grazing all day (because you are) but it's necessary.

As you might surmise from the above list, diet is very important. In fact 80 percent of your success can be attributed to nutrition. Don't take it lightly. In order to build lean muscle mass, you have to eat lean, quality food. No fat diets DO NOT WORK but neither does “all you can eat.”

Choose to eat wisely and train smart. You'll build a better-looking body that will be healthier, too!

Two Tricks To Yoga

Yoga is a great way to get fit and relax

You may not be into Yoga but I bet you've heard of it. It's impossible to avoid because so many people are so into it these days. There's one reason that Yoga has become so popular around the world, and that is because it works, which means it makes people feel better.

There are two tricks to Yoga that make it especially effective at fixing pains and enhancing energy, which is why it makes people feel so much better. It has a holistic approach and when done correctly it demands concentration.

Holistic in this sense means that Yoga is about being well-rounded, effecting the whole body by reaching all of the parts. Many of our Western exercise programs overemphasize certain body parts which ultimately creates imbalances. As well, most of the physical therapy and medical perspectives toward dealing with injuries revolve solely on the affected area, rarely taking into account surrounding issues that contributed to the problem. Yoga is never about the individual part, it is always about the whole, which is what makes it work so well. In order to get the best effect on as much of the whole as possible, it's important to know which poses you should be practicing, and how to do them correctly.

If you aren't really into Yoga but you want to get it's benefits, you should practice the postures that target the full body. That way you practice a little and you spread the benefit throughout the whole body. If you have a knee problem or a bad neck, then you get one or two poses specifically for that issue, and have a couple basic ones that cover the whole body. There are certain Yoga postures that, when done correctly, give you much better results from 5 minutes of practice then others.

If you start practicing and see that you want to get into it more, you should concentrate on the correct Yoga poses for beginners. These are the ones that, although not as interesting to the ego, build the proper foundation, which is really important in Yoga. If you learn the fundamentals well, a few things will happen that will take you far. One is your body will feel better because Yoga, when practiced correctly, fixes the body. It literally balances the imbalances. Another is that your mind will feel better, which is obvious right, because the body is getting fixed up. Less body pain equals happier mind, always. As well, all the good benefits will motivate you to practice more, which is always a very good thing.

Knowing which Yoga poses to practice is half of what you need to be intelligent with your Yoga, and get the best results for the time you dedicate, whether that's 5 minutes a few days per week or a couple of hours per day. You have to do the right Yoga poses, but you also have to do them correctly.

Ever notice how one of your hips is higher than the other, or more forward? Certainly if you look in a mirror and stand naturally you'll see one shoulder higher than the other. What you're seeing is your posture, the brilliant position your body figured out as you were growing into the person you are now. Although you never thought about gravity pushing down on you, all of the time, your body has had to deal with it, and your posture is the result. If you don't know what you're supposed to be doing in the Yoga poses, your posture will lead the way. The tightness and weaknesses of your body will determine how you do the Yoga poses, that's not good. You want the Yoga poses to fix those imbalances, rather than being dominated by them. Yoga should strengthen the weak areas and lengthen the tight areas, which can only happen if you practice correctly, not randomly.

Practicing correctly means understanding what you are trying to accomplish with your body in the pose, and doing it. Everyone should have the same goal in every Yoga pose – to balance the body. But that's difficult when you don't even know what it means to have a balanced body, or what your specific imbalances are. That's why you want good teaching. Yoga should not be working your body into a position you see someone else doing, there should be very clear instructions that make complete sense and are doable. When you learn, for example, to keep your knees pointing straight ahead you learn what is correct. As you focus on that and do your best, you are balancing your body, and over time you see that one leg can do it easier than the other. Eventually you notice that  is connected to the hip problem you'd had for years. Learning the pose correctly not only helps you get the best benefit from your practice, it also teaches you about your own posture and how to balance it.

Yoga can help you feel better and accomplish the goals you have with your body and mind, the key is to start slow with the right postures, and learn them well. If you do only this you’ll immediately start getting the benefits that are making Yoga so popular world wide.

Christian Leeby has been a full-time Yoga instructor for over 2 decades. He has learned from the best teachers around the world and is an expert on correct alignment. Visit him at www.miracleofyoga.com.