Most people don’t eat directly before they workout, for fear they will interfere with digestion, or get an upset stomach if they “stir up” the contents of the stomach too quickly so soon after ingesting food. Once in a while, to keep my blood sugar steady, since I eat once every few hours, I will have a small snack - say a small snack bar or banana about a half hour before my workout, but never anything heavy because it is quite possible your stomach will be upset by that.

I recently heard the better thing to eat before working out is actually a food that is more carb-central, instead of protein-central. The reason being that the body burns off carbs first, and since you just ate carbs, you will experience the benefit of a faster burning food, and more fuel for your workout instead of protein, which may actually stall your workout or make you feel sluggish.

The absolute worst thing you can eat right before a workout is refined sugar - say a candy bar or some other sort of refined sugar. This will definitely cause a quick energy surge, only to let you down before your workout is even over, since refined sugar is burned off so quickly and results in a steep dropoff in energy after it burns off. If you’re burning it quickly working out, you may start to feel weak halfway through, or sooner.

I am 33 years old, and I have pretty much had back problems since I was in my early twenties. Thanks to two rear-endings in cars where I was a passenger and suffered quite a bit of whiplash, and improper exercise techniques when I was younger, I think I permanently messed my alignment up in my back, and I’m constantly trying to make up for that today.

I also have an irregular curvature at the top of my spine, which is actually a fairly common disorder that could or could not throw off your posture and back alignment, making for a hard time being comfortable sometimes just sitting still. So, if you have back problems, as such a large percent of the population does, how can you exercise safely, should you exercise at all, and what are some precautions you can take to protect your back?

Well first of all, there are very few back problems that require you not get exercise in the traditional sense. In fact, being sedentary is probably the worst thing you can do for your back, even though it seems like it’s the thing that makes the most sense. Sitting still for long periods of time actually can compress the back and make the back muscles weaker, making it harder for them to support the back adequately, and resulting in more soreness and weakness.

Protecting the back during workouts is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. First, you want to have a solid core all the time, and by that, I mean solid abs and mid back. If this isn’t solid, it permits for back injury. Also, not making sudden or jerky movements is a good idea, and doing crunches and ab work with caution is important, as if they are done improperly it causes strain on the neck and back instead of working what it’s supposed to - the abs.

My massotherapist always tells me to make sure when doing arm work, to protect my back, to make sure my arms stay basically “in their sockets” and are not making too wide a range of motion. In other words, limit lifting arms above the head, and make sure the sturnum is always steady and straight, this helps to achieve alignment in the back and neck as well.

Looking for something to ease the constant holiday stress of obligations, shopping and money concerns, visiting families, holiday parties and functions, and to just work off some of that excess energy and nervousness that come from lots of sugar and stress, a holiday staple unfortunately?

I myself know that I’ve been succumbing to the holiday stress of everyone calling, wanting to go shopping, asking who’s doing what, and gathering shopping lists, and taking it out by eating too much comfort food! So, I resolved to make sure I kept going to the gym every day at work that I possibly can if I don’t have meetings.

Exercise is one of the best forms of stress reduction as well as an excellent, not to be beaten antidepressant. It’s just getting there that’s the hard part. The way you feel afterwards makes it all worthwhile, even if, while you’re sweatin’ your butt off on the treadmill or spinning your way into oblivion in a spinnning class, you’re cursing the very exercise that’s therapeutic for your body and soul!

One of the biggest things that’s overlooked when people look at managing stress is exercise. It may seem like an oxymoron of sorts to some, since exercise in itself requires a sort of “stress” on the body and exertion, however this is one oxymoron that holds true in almost every situation - no matter who you are, exercise is good for you.

I’m thinking that I want to add another piece of exercise equipment to our downstairs home gym, and I was thinking the perfect complement to what we already have would be a recumbent bike, since we don’t really have any other cardio equipment that would work the legs and buttocks quite the same way, and allow you to sit there and read a book all at the same time!

I love recumbent bikes for a couple of reasons. The first is that while they may seem “easier” because you are sitting down while using them, you are in fact getting an excellent cardiovascular workout on the recumbent bike. You can usually adjust the resistence on the better models of recumbent bikes (see recumbent bike reviews for more information on different recommended models), so that if you don’t want to bulk up your quads too much, which is the front of your upper thighs, you won’t.

I only mention that because the is a concern that I have personally, since my quads tend to build up and bulk out very quickly, especially for a woman, and I like to keep them more long and stretched out rather than bulky looking, as I think for me it takes away the feminine look of my legs since I don’t have the longest legs in the world to begin with.

You can expect a great cardio workout on the recumbent bike, and you can still read a book, paper or magazine comfortably while using a recumbent bike, which makes it a popular choice amongst gym patrons since it offers an excellent endurance workout and you can still sit on your rear while doing it. Many times when I’m working out at the work gym though, I purposefully skip the recumbent bike because I know that I need to stretch my back out during the day (I have a desk job), so I instead will usually opt for the elliptical machine or the treadmill.