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So lately I've been wanting to get fit and in shape. I'm already running and walking, but I also want to do some other exercises. For the past two weeks I've been trying to do push ups and I can't. Why is it so hard? I can't hold myself up and its embarrassing. I've been doing them on my knees to at least build up a little arm muscle and so I do that for awhile and then I do a regular push up and its not helping at all, its almost a waste of time. I get like a tingly feeling in my elbows and then when I stop trying and get up, my upper arms hurt. How come I can't do push ups? Is there a way to gradually build arm muscle so that I can do push ups? I know its hard and challenging but it its impossible all together for me :(
Thank you.

Many people find calisthenics to be difficult because in essence, you are required to use all of your bodyweight as resistance as opposed to weight training where you can go below or above your bodyweight for resistance. Truthfully, everyone should be able to do at least one pushup at their bodyweight, but if you can't the good news is that your body is very adaptable and you will be able to get them in no time. It's good that you started off on the knees, while this doesn't build much strength it is beneficial for muscle memory and tendon strength. Did you consider that maybe your hands are too close together? because the closer you bring them- the more difficult the movement becomes. Shoulder width is best for beginners.

What you also can't ignore is the systemic response that push-ups give. While primarily targeting the chest, triceps and front deltoids...the stability that it takes to keep your body suspended using your core muscles (stomach) is stressful and it really builds up the more you do it and makes the movement easier. Keep at it- you will get it.

are triscuits good for you? they seem to be low in fat and sodium and have a lot of good things like calcium

To determine if something is "Good for you" you have to take everything into account. Triscuits are only meant to be snacks eaten every now and then in between select meals to keep your hunger at bay, so no they're not what you would call "good for you" and the amount of calcium is negligible- all you have to do is drink a glass of milk. People who make these snacks are aware that America isn't very well informed on diet and nurition so they claim that their product is a healthy alternative to real healthy foods which are tried and true- Tuna, skinless chicken, water, etc.- Those are good for you.

Better snacks-

Low fat string cheese
Low fat yogurt
Cottage cheese and fresh fruit
All natural peanut butter
light protein drinks
beef jerky

what is better for you regular or diet soda?

and is margerine or regular butter better for you?

me and my friend are debating over this.

Regular soda and diet soda will kill you all the same and whether it is the straight up sugar like in regular soda or a sugar substitute like aspartame in diet soda..you're not drinking anything beneficial.

Butter and margarine are both loaded with trans-fat and actually if you cook with margarine the heat changes its chemical composition and it can become a carcinogen. Stick with butter if you must and drink water.

hey im 15/f and about 130 pounds. I want to lose a few pounds so i can look good in a bikini. I want to lose my leg "fat" and i want a flat tummy. See I cant get "dedicated" it doesn't usually last. No matter what i do i cant seem to lose weight diet or no diet.. i cant lose weight or gain it and i want to lose it. I want to lose 10 pounds. Any Suggestions, or tips to get dedicated? What foods to stay away from? Thanks!! I'll rate 5s!

Well I can tell you that the reason why you don't lose anything when you diet is because you are doing it incorrectly. All you really need is just a little bit of guidance in the right direction.

I get lots of people who are concerned when they first come to me about losing in a specific bodypart and usually when Iam done training them, I get to instill a sense of health over appearance which Iam always striving to do. This is what I want to get you guys used to is being healthy and making good health choices over just working out to look better and finding it to be a chore.

Try all different kinds of training whether its aerobic, weight, aquatic, Pilates, or whatever it is and find your niche because no matter how long we train we all have different styles that are unique to us since we all have different outlooks and motivations. You need to enjoy what you're doing and strive to do better today than you did yesterday and part of that is just experimenting and finding exactly what you can stick to and not find a chore. The appearance comes later on down the road...believe me.

Hi. I want to learn how to levitate the way that Chriss Angel does. (the MindFreak) Does anyone know how to, or knows any sites that teach this for free?

I'll rate high unless the answers are dumb.
Thanks in advance!
:D

Iam a street magician and can tell you that Criss Angel's levitation is extremely impractical for impromptu situations even though it is very strikingly visual.

If you want to do magic you should know that the first rule of it is to never ask or provide for information on an effect.

Criss sells the effect for $99 on DVD, but you need to construct the gimmick by yourself which will cost you another few hundred dollars.

I can however recommend another levitation- it's called the King's Rising Levitation or the Balducci Levitation which is what David Blaine uses and it's sold at Ellusionist.com and is the levitation I use as well as many other street magicians. The DVD is not expensive and it requires absolutely no gimmicks at all....just a good knowledge of misdirection which is an art in itself that you need to learn if you want to be a magician whether it's street magic, stage magic, shock magic or whatever.

are wheat thins good for you? and do they taste good

Not good for you at all...soaked in trans-fatty acid and it's a crime that they're advertised as a healthy alternative to chips and crackers and all. They taste great, but they aren't good for you.

Check out a line that EAS Nutirition has out called "Body for Life" which sells very good and real healthy snacks that taste excellent.

I just started my marching band training today, and my calfs get very soar really easily. Does anyone know any exercises I can use to strenthen my calfs?

Well your claves are extremely sturdy and hence very stubborn to make respond. You need to really train your claves very heavy to see and feel a repsonse and bike riding and weightless calf raises just aren't enough.

You need to go to the gym and do both standing and seated calf raises to work the Soleus (Lower) and Gastrocnemius (Upper) portions of the calves. Since we rely on our calves so much they can handle an extreme amount of weight. Reg Park who was the original Hercules told Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was a young bodybuilder that each time we walk; momentarily one calf is supporting all of our bodyweight, so technically with both calves you should easily to able to do calf raises with double your bodyweight. That really applies to bodybuilders and the like, but it isn't that far ahead from what normal fitness people should be aiming for as well. Train your calves once ever other day doing both standing and seated calf raises with a fair amount of weight as resistance and make them burn...it's the only way you will make them respond since they are such a stubborn muscle group.

ok well im 130 pounds 13/f and i want to loose 20 pounds so im going to walk an hour everday but i want to no when im going to see results and how long will it take to loose 20 pounds :]

thankz i rate high

That's a very vague description...nobody could really give you real advice without knowing other things like your lifestyle, eating habits, mental attitude. So Iam going to join everyone else and make a blanket statement.

20 real pounds of bodyfat at 100 calories per mile within an hour you may burn between 200-400 calories....I would say almost a year. Yes, I mean that. A little bit shorter if you combine it with weight training and a great diet

20 pounds of mixed water weight and a little bit of bodyfat (maybe 2 or 3 lbs of bodyfat)...I would say about 3 weeks, but this really isn't too ideal. Iam sorry but this really is the truth.

does anyone know a really good workout that works your lower abs and targets the "pooch" area?

The advice you got is right and wrong.

Yes it is true that crunches will target the lower abs....after all the abs is just one muscle so why wouldn't it move as one unit when being exercised? It is just a common misconception that crunches only work the upper abs because that is where the brunt of the movement happens (and this is up there with the other real popular misconception that we all have abs and that a layer of fat just covers them, but back to my original point)...but that doesn't mean the lower portion doesn't get worked also. Next time you do a bicep curl notice that you feel a lot of the stress near the elbow region...but the top of the bicep near the shoulder is still tight also...its the same concept. People who just don't know what they're talking about say that crunches only work the upper abs. (Yes I also thought this to be true, so I include myself in that group as well.)

Now for the wrong part lol-

Nobody thought to mention that the exercising of one particular area will not reduce body fat in that area...also called "Spot Reduction". So this means that we need to target the lipids (fat cells) from the inside through a proper and consistent nutrition which is what gets rid of any of the fat on our bodies..not cardio and weight training.

The long and short of it-

Eat clean and the pooch will go away.

okay well this summer i decided im going to try and lose weight. so i decided if i eat right and jump on the trameline everyday i will lose some weight. (im babysitting this summer so ill be playing with little kids and obvisously be doing other exercises like running around with them and other things) my question is about how much weight do you think i could lose by september?

*please answer my question and ill rate 5's for at least trying and being honest too.

thanks! any other advice about losing weight is welcome too!

To be very honest...with the minimal exercising you'll be doing- not much weight at all. However the real turning point in any fitness endeavour is the diet. Most people dont understand that lots of exercising will not just wipe away a bad diet, and this includes the advertised "healthy" snacks like 100 calorie packs, trail mix, Special K, etc. Now you have some hope here because you made it clear you want to eat right- just combine this with weight training and/or cardio workouts for 30-60 mins 3 to 4 times per week and you will be losing weight at an excellent rate. Most of all- don't find this to be a chore or a passing fad...make this your lifestyle because there is nothing more important than your health.

Hi,I´m Jackie. I´m 39 years old woman, and Í´ve been training at the gym for several years, 4 or 5 times a week. I have very very strong and big cuadriceps. The rest of my body is really ok, low fat percentage and all. I shouldn´t loose weight because my face would become very angular and my legs would remain almost the same (I already tried this)
I tried aerobics classes, weight lifting with aerobic interval pauses: I got no results.
Shoud I run more, do aerobics all the time?
Several persons told me is in my genes and I can´t change it. I really hate it, I can´t buy a pair of jeans, cause if they fit my legs they are huge in my hips and waist

Well the Quadricep ( ;-) ) muscles can be tough to target because a good bit of our bodyfat is stored there and Iam sure that your hamstrings play a decent part in this dilemma you find yourself in. Honestly, this sounds largely genetic and it just so happens to be your weak point which no matter how long you have been excercising, everyone has. Don't waste time with people telling you that lighter weight "Tones" ( There is no such thing as the word tone in real life fitness ) and that higher reps make things slender- its all the bullshit concept of "Spot Reduction" or making a particular bodypart smaller by exercising it- just doesnt work that way and thats the truth. Our bodies are incredibly adaptive and it will acclimate to workloads that you constantly put on it, which is why for example when you weight train you try and pyramid the weights starting low and going higher. So you've told me that you have done weight training and aerobics..try something different like Pilates or change the angle at which you train your legs, you would be amazed at what the most minute alteration could do for you.

Most important and anybody who reads what I have to say regularly on fitness understands that Iam always stressing the importance of a good diet with balanced carbs/fats/proteins and not zero or low anything...experiment with all different things and dont get discouraged when it doesn't work, just keep going at it.

From one personal trainer giving advice to you- Don't waste your time by hiring one for this particular dilemma. If you really want some excellent advice by a very reliable source that people of all sorts go to find answers then get a book called "Brother Iron Sister Steel" by Dave Draper. It's good, common sense tried and true exercise and nutrition information.

This is pretty weird but my #1, urea, is like crayon yellow. I really don't know how to describe it...it's like mountain dew-y color..pretty scary.

My mum said it's probably the tabs I'm taking but I'm not sure and I can't go to a doctor until like july cause right now I'm pretty busy.

I jus noticed it this evening. It was on the seat..well 1 drop and it looked really yellow. So I didn't take it on and just a while back I went again and it was like there again. IT wasn't on the seat again it had it on the toilet paper and I could see the color REALLY clearly.

Anyhow i'm 14/f. Right now I'm on 2 tabs: seven sea's cod liver capsules and jameson's vitamin B 100mg.
Has this happened to anyone by chance? Thanks if u help

Since Vitamin B is a water soluble and not a fat soluble vitamin, the excess that we don't use is wasted through the urine and causes it to turn a bright yellow color.

so i want to loose some wait this summer (20-40 pounds) i am not over wait i just feel fat because i have big bones. i was wonder how long should i go to the gym everyday. i dont want to over do it. and usual i only eat twice a day is that health?

Eat at least 4 times a day. Go to the gym and workout for 45 mins to an hour 3 to 4 times per week with good weight training and cardio...that's all it is, not the big complicated fiasco that so many make it to be.

Whats the fascination girls have over 6-packs? When my gf starts talking about celebrities, athletes, or other guys that have them, she drools over them and I feel miserable about myself and left out, I mean what am I supposed to say to that? I don't know if thats her way of telling me I should have one or what. It kind of bothers me, but I don't know if telling my gf that would do any good. All her other friends think the same thing, I just don't see whats so great about it...so what is it and what do you think I should do?

THANK YOU. Holy shit- I can swear to you all that every single one of the clients that I train have brought up the "I want a 6 pack" desire at one time or another, I mean just look around this site- people ask this question every single damn day in all different varieties. The reason why people are so fascinated with the abs is because that is the region where we all store most of our bodyfat, and unfortunately is the visual centerpiece of our body. If you were to draw two X'es down the body, they would meet at the abs. Most people dont have 6 packs and I'll count myself in there because mine isnt anything to drool over and when we see that- we are reminded that we are out of shape and just plain ordinary. Dont pay much attention to what she says, because most of the guys you see with 6 packs usually only train the muscles they can see in a mirror from the waist up. Go to your local gym and see how many guys have huge arms, tight stomachs and chests and either they will wear pants or you'll be able to see their little chicken legs in shorts. We call them "Tanktop Trainers" and believe me they're laughed at because they're so out of proportion. Besides...haven't you figured out that teenage girls want to do that to you? All they want to do is make you feel jealous because it makes them feel special and important that her guy will get all pissy and macho if she says another guy is hot...it's just what they do and its all immaturity, once she finds out that MTV isn't real life and she needs a guy who has a little more brains over a 6 pack- you'll feel a hell of alot better dude. Who gives a shit what she says, and if you want to play hardball talk about how J-Lo's ass is gorgeous or whatever and put some of that on her- Or even better, show absolutely no reaction when she says something like that as if you could care less- that will really get her because all she wants to see is a reaction from you so she feels all special and wanted. She's just a girl man and thats what they do- you don't want her to like your for your 6 pack. If you really can't stand it..then go work out and train like you want to be the Incredible Hulk, once she gets a little older she'll grow out of her "O my gawd look at his 6 pack like chaaaa" phase. Sorry...I just hate when I see guys getting all jealous in this situation, I feel for you.

hey im 15/f. I was wondering what exactly weight smart does. I heard it speeds up your metabolism. I want to know if it really does work? Does it help you loose weight. Please dont give me the speach on me being too young. I just want to know what it does exactly.. does it burn fat what? I'll rate 5s!

Doesn't burn anything and you're a sucker if you think it's good for you. The reason why you lose weight (kind of) with it is because it makes you shit.

I'm not worried about my weight but I'm just curious... I've been keeping track of my weight daily, and sometimes the scale gives back some weird numbers. Like, I've heard that it's unhealthy to lose more than 1 or 2 pounds a week, but I'll go to bed one night and wake up 4 pounds lighter. It's so strange. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Or is my scale messed up? Or am I just weird? Thanks ahead!

Its not your clothes and its not your scale...it's you. This happens to everyone because during the night we metabolize energy from the foods we ate in the day and our pores open and we lose water weight thats all it is- water weight.

Ok well this is a really strange question since most people ask the opposite, but does anyone know how I could gain like 10 pounds since I am really really skinny and people blame me for being anorexic? (and please just don't say eat more, since I already eat a lot and it doesn't really do anything). I pretty much want to gain weight all over, except for my abbs which i want to keep flat. Any ideas? Thanks a bunch in advance!

What everyone doesn't understand is that whether you're obese or anorexic...shit food is shit food and has the same effect on us all. Also you can't just bombard your system with junk or even massive amount of healthy food if you're used to eating like a bird...you need to introduce good wholesome foods slowly and let your body get used to metabolizing their nutrients. You have to eat right to gain and eat right to lose...just take your time and make the effort wholeheartedly. Work out with weights and you're set.

I have a 2 month holiday foor summer...from early july to early september. I was thinking to go gym every day for 1 hr or 1 and 1/2 and eat healthy meals...small healthy meals (5-6).

How much weight will I lose?
How long will it take to lose about 30-40 lbs?

please help...i really need it!

Rest is just as important as working out...recovery and processes that you want to happen do in fact occur during rest and not exercise..you only need to go 3 or 4 times a week.

You will lose a good amount of weight, but to lose a true 30-40 lbs of real bodyfat in a healthy way (which you're doing may I add) and not just 7-10 lbs of bodyfat and however many lbs of water and other junk weight in 8 weeks, thats going to take you at least a year...sorry. However, I will say that a scale is very overrated and people who read what I have to say know that Iam all for using the mirror as your best judge and not a scale..you'll be a lot happier that way ;-)

i've always wondered this: can you lose weight (in a healthy way) by sweating? for example, being outside in 100 degree weather all day (and staying hydrated and all that good stuff).

Here it is for you very simply-

Can you lose it? Yes
Is it healthy? No
Will it stay off? No- its only water weight

How do swimsuit models get their stomachs so flat, like is that like having tight abs or is it just that they dont have any fat in that area. is it because they workout by running or crunches?

thanks

It's called starving yourself and taking plenty of Clenbuterol to be honest with you.

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