I’m in love with a new buzzword in today’s modern exercise and workouts, and it’s called plyometrics. Plyometrics are the employment of fast, quick and sudden bursts that involve a lot of muscle power and a lot of stamina. A good example of a plyometric exercise is the power lunge plank, where you start out in the infamous yoga plank position, which is where you are basically positioning yourself in a push up position, and then you suddenly blast your feet backwards, lunging back like a rabbit would do (of course, only rabbits go forward when they do it), and then blasting your feet back up forward.

Yes, when I say “staying regular” I mean the frequency and regularity with which you have an elimination of waste (when you go to the bathroom) is greater when you exercise vs. when you are a couch potato. Let’s talk about the reasons why, if you suffer from chronic or even periodic constipation, if you don’t already work out regularly then you should start. I’ve had problems on and off with constipation my whole life. Actually, my mom even said I was full of colic (gas) and was constipated a lot as a baby and a young child, so it must just be a weaker part of my physiology for some reason.

Well, it turns out that all this time I’ve argued with my boyfriend about static stretching (stretching in place and holding it for a period) being good for you before a cardio workout or something where you muscles are going to be moving and could build up lactic acid may be wrong.

I’ve stretched this way for years and never really had any issues with it, but some fitness experts say that you should not do static stretches before a workout, but instead warm up the body and get the blood pumping and blood going to the muscles by running in place or doing something like jumping jacks or other low impact but aerobic workouts before you do the “real workout”.

There’s a new study that may not make those of us that are hardcore workout manics too happy. But then again, it makes people like me, who like to exercise moderately, pretty darn happy. A new study is suggesting that working out too many hours in the gym or wherever else it is that you happen to pump iron and do your cardio, may actually make it harder for you to lose weight. The reason is that your body starts overcompensating for too many calories burned and over stressing the body, and it demands more calorie intake, which consequently sort of negates the impact that your exercise if having on your body since it makes you consume more calories.

I remember reading a curious fact about some body builders, and even some models, who use diuretics a few days before photo shoots simply so they can lose a little bit of water weight which theoretically will allow their muscles to show through a little more. However, there are some serious drawbacks to using diuretics when you’re not on them for a medically legitimate and necessary reason.

Sports are a huge pastime here in the US, but they should be encouraged even more so with the obesity epidemic and problems with kids already becoming obese in their early childhood, a frightening trend in the quest to bring up healthier kids who usually grow into healthier adults. All you have to do is look at the immense popularity of shows like Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club to see that obesity and weightloss are obsessions in themselves with Americans, along with the compulsive need to overeat and the encouragement of gargantuan food portions and lack of physical activity . I know, it all seems like it’s an oxymoron, but it’s true.

We’ve all heard that exercising helps us to lower our cortisol levels, but what most people don’t know is that DURING exercise, your cortisol levels are actually elevated. This just is a way of your body helping to compensate and feed your muscles more to accomodate the strain on them. Cortisol is called the “stress hormone” because it occurs when you are either extremely emotionally distressed, but it also rises when your body is taxed physically. Excess cortisol levels are a bad thing. They lead to a chain reaction that eventually results in excess fat storage in the least desirable areas, not the least of which is the belly area.