If you’re thinking of buying a treadmill, where do you begin to know what to look for in quality of the machine versus the price? What are the basic essentials to differentiate a durable machine from a second rate treadmill that won’t stand the test of time?

A newer concept that was actually pioneered at NASA as a way for their astronauts to stay in better physical condition while up in space, and to prevent the muscle atrophy that often goes along with being in zero gravity for prolonged periods of time is causing quite a stir in the fitness and exercise world, along with a hefty dose of criticism and doubt, as any new exercise fad does.

Treadmills are probably one of the most popular pieces of workout equipment that people purchase and use in their homes as part of a personal fitness program. What is the reason for their popularity?

One of the reasons that the treadmill is the equipment of choice for their workout is that they don’t have to worry about inclement weather as they are working out indoors. There’s no worry about unwelcome situations of feeling unsafe as might occur if you were jogging outdoors particularly in the evening hours.

Well, we all know that strength training is a necessary part of a well-rounded workout, but did you think that it actually could help prevent and reverse muscle aging? Muscle aging means that we lose muscle tone, and often times this can lead to more problems, such as the heart weakening, which is a major muscle and of course major organ. Here’s where it gets really interesting.

Muscle/strength training, as we all know, is an excellent way to condition the muscles and increase endurance, but now new research is suggesting that muscle sculptin not only conditions older muscle, but it also essentially turns the genetic age clock back on the muscles and makes them as efficient as they were in younger years.

Well, although there has been, if you ask me, conflicting evidence on this one, and there almost always is for every new health, diet or fitness theory that pops up sad to say, new research is suggesting that exercise may not offer as much benefit to those that are overweight, as it does to those that are on the thinner side.

But why would that be? And why would exercise even still be recommended for people who are overweight or just wishing to lose weight or get fit by instituting an exercise regimen in their life?

I was in Target the other day, and bought a new set of dumb bells – eight pounders, because I really needed to juice up my weight collection, since I currently only have a 3 lb. and 5 lb. weight set currently, and feel like these don’t offer enough weight for my arms any more, especially if I’ve been focusing on my arms for a week or more, my muscles demand more and more weight so that they are actually working and not becoming used to the old weights.

Hmm… good question, especially since when I work out at home, I always have the TV on, and I actually feel that it makes my workout go by much faster, and makes it more so that I actually want to work out because I’m not bored out of my mind when I’m down in the basement, where there would really be nothing else to do besides watch tv since it is really just a storage space for tons of junk, and is not a finished basement.

I just bought myself a new pair of neoprene dumb bells in a green color by Reebok at Target today. I like the neoprene dumb bells better than the more expensive chrome dumb bells actually, because the neoprene, which is kind of like a matte rubber, is much more easily gripped, and seems to never get too beat up.

I also like it better than the dumb bells they used to make with the high-shine rubber, which just seemed to be too hard to keep a grip on, especially when you were all sweaty, and they also seemed to get tears in them pretty easily, and show the metal through with not much use.

Today was a beautiful day here in Ohio, and they are few and far between during the winter months, so to say that everyone has spring and summer fevere here in the midwest is an understatement. Let’s just put it this way, everyone around my parts is wearing shorts at the first sign of the sun, that’s how desperate we get to rush summer here sometimes!

Of course, I may be exaggerating a tad, but my point is, around here, it’s a tossup whether you should spend your time outside on a gorgeous day such as today, or stay indoors and work out in your home gym on some of your exercise equipment, closed away from the beautiful sunshine, or forego the workout to soak up some rays.

An interesting article recently came out about how people who appear thin on the outside according to most standards, may actually be “fat” on the inside of their body. What this means is that they appear skinny externally, body wise, but internally they store a lot of fat around their organs. Storing fat around your organs can actually be just as unhealthy and dangerous for you as if you had excess fat externally, visible to the naked eye and were considered “overweight”.