For those of you that have never stepped into a gym, people who are bodybuilding typically have a day of the week for each muscle group (i.e. - day 1 is legs, day 2 is chest, day 3 is biceps and shoulders, day 4 is a rest day, etc.).  Well the posture day at the gym is pretty much the same as the back day.  This is why people who are bodybuilders generally have great posture - if you are exercising your back regularly, you are working on the muscles that maintain your posture.

The back isn't made up of one large muscle, it is made up of several smaller muscles that all work in different ways.  However, an easy rule of thumb to remember is if an exercise involves pulling with your arms, then it is a back workout.  Likewise, if you are pushing with your arms then you are using your chest muscles.  Also generally speaking, back exercises tend to use biceps as a secondary muscle, and chest exercises tend to use triceps as a secondary muscle.  In order to have a good, solid back workout you need to make sure to do both upper back exercises and lower back exercises.  There are A LOT of varying back exercises, but if you want to make sure to hit all areas of your back, a good solid routine should include some version of all these exercises:  the lat pull down or pull up, the seated row, shoulder shrugs, and the back extension.  If you do some version of those four workouts once per week, your posture should start to improve automatically, and if you are suffering from regular back pain caused by poor posture, these exercises will certainly help with that.  Please look at the posts on this website that describe each exercise listed in greater detail.  If it is your first time going to the gym or performing these exercises, it would also be wise to bring a friend who knows what he is doing or have a personal trainer show you proper technique and teach you some bodybuilding tips.

Weight loss is about 100 times easier than anyone seems to think.  There is one factor and one factor only when it comes to weight loss: calorie intake.  That is it and nothing else matters.  If you are taking in less calories in a day than your body is using up in a day, you will lose weight.  From a mathematical standpoint, that is the only thing that could happen.

When you workout, you use up more calories, but if you are eating more than you are working off, then you will still gain weight.  So obviously exercising helps, but it certainly doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want whenever you want (as a lot of people tend to think).  You can exercise any way you want.  Read best exercises to lose weight for more ideas.  Running on electric treadmills is a great way to get a good cardio workout at your own home.

Now that we've gotten that straightened out, we can go over a few more details.  The most obvious question is 'if calorie intake is all that matters, why can't I just eat hamburgers all day and just make sure I take in less calories?"  Its actually a pretty fair question, and technically, if you you eat less calories with hamburgers in a day than you do with broccoli, you will lose more weight.  However, there are two things to think about here:

1) Hamburgers have way more calories than broccoli, so you would have to eat a TON of broccoli to match the hamburger.

2) You still aren't considering nutritional value.  Sure weight and health are related, but not 100%.  A skinny person is not always healthy; their diet could still be poor and they could end up having a lot of health problems.  Just because you can lose weight by eating one hamburger a day instead of three meals of healthy food a day doesn't mean you want to.  When you start getting older your poor dieting habits will catch up with you.

Seriously, if you read the above and truly digest it, you should have no problems at all getting your body fit and maintaining a healthy life style.  Always eat healthy foods (you know what they are), and eat a little less overall if you are trying to lose weight.  That's it!

If you are dealing with any serious health problems, be sure get professional help for yourself at a chiropractic clinic or any other medical center.

Our first topic provides great information for these coming winter months...information on the Homeopathic Flu Vaccine.  Be sure to read up before getting your vaccine.

The next topic is relevant reading material for women who have just given birth.  After a grueling nine months of pregnancy, you are now ready for post natal recovery.

Another health topic on a lot of people's minds is hair restoration and replacement.  If you are considering hair implant surgery, be sure to read up on the facts first.

I am a particularly big fan of this site because it talks about ball room dancing, which of course really stresses maintaining great posture throughout the dance.  Be sure to check out Ballroom Dancing for Beginners.

The last topic on today's health blog carnival is sleep apnea treatments.  Sometimes snoring can be a more dangerous condition than it seems, so if you snore, or know someone who does, you can find some very useful information in that article.

Hope you guys learn some good stuff from those articles!  Remember to take care of your bodies and take care of your backs.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

1.    Never break form; if you can’t do any more repetitions, just stop.  People breaking form to get more repetitions is the number one reason people get injured.  Not only that, when you do an exercise with improper form, it is no longer effective.  You are only cheating yourself.  Do the full range of the exercise in correct form to ensure you get the most from your workout.  This is the most important bodybuilding tip of all of them.

2.    As a general rule, whenever you are doing an exercise, try to keep correct posture.  With these exercises, it is extra important, since these exercises are the ones focused on developing correct posture.  Make sure the rest of your body is in a comfortable position as well (feet flat on the floor, chair at a comfortable height, etc.)

3.    When exerting yourself, breath out.  When preparing for the next repetition, breath in.

4.    Don’t rush through the exercises or try to get through them quickly.  Do them at a controlled pace, focusing on correct form.

5.    The ideal amount of repetitions are between 12 and 15, three sets total.  It is especially important that you aren’t trying for more weight than you can handle.  Your primary focus should be on keeping correct form, and after a while you will develop muscle memory, and it will become more automatic.  Once you become comfortable with the exercises and have developed good muscle memory (at least two months), you will start to get a good feel for what weight level is good for you, and whether you should start going for more weight.

6.    This tip is hard to explain, but once you are at the gym and start lifting, you’ll understand what I am saying.  A lot of back exercises use your arms as a secondary muscle (specifically, your biceps).  The goal is to get the focus on the back muscles, so when you do these exercises, try to pretend your arms are an extension of your back.  In other words, flex and focus on your back, while pretending your arms are merely levers to get the job done.  This is one of the main mistakes a lot of beginners make, and they end up working out their arms more than their back (although you will develop some nice biceps!).

7.     Always do the same number of repetitions on each side of your body.  If you do six bicep curls with one arm, only do six bicep curls with the other (even if you can do more).  Most people have a side of their body that is stronger than the other, and if you always work out both sides of your body unevenly, they will never even out and you will start to look funny over time!  A good trick to do this is to always start with your weaker side, since the other side will always be able to match the number of repetitions.

8.    Last but not least of my bodybuilder tips, do a warm-up!  Nothing makes less sense than starting to lift weights out of the blue.  Do some jumping jacks, run on the treadmill, do some shadow boxing, or other warm-up exercises for at least 10 minutes.  Some people are very big on stretching, but there is a lot of controversy over how effective stretching really is, and some even believe it does more harm than good.  I’m not going to recommend one over the other (and personally I never stretch), but I will say ALWAYS WARM UP!!!

These tips are applicable to ALL of the most important exercises when trying to develop correct posture: the lat pull down, pull up, seated row, shoulder shrugs, and back extension.

Those are all my tips on bodybuilding.  Keep them in mind when you are doing your posture exercises, and you will be well on your way to correct posture and no more back pain!  These tips will help you with any goal you may have, whether you are doing exercises to lose weight or to gain muscle mass.