The Fitness Adviser

A long time ago, there ruled a very powerful king named Charlie. Now, King Charlie had everything that anyone in his time could ever dream of, for he ruled over the richest and most powerful kingdom in the world, and it was good to be the king. But there was one thing King Charlie did not have, and could not seem to acquire despite his best efforts. Six pack abs.

[This is a "King Penguin", not to be confused with a real king.]

So one day, King Charlie called in three of his best advisers to give him tips on how to get ripped abs. The first adviser was Arnold, a famous bodybuilder whose ability to build muscle was known throughout the land. The second adviser was Jack, who preferred a less massive but more toned look than Arnold and was extremely popular with the non-bodybuilders.

Nowadays, there doesn’t seem to be anyone who doesn’t know just how important exercise is. So if everyone knows how important it is, why aren’t more people dedicated to exercising? Here are the top 10 excuses people use not to workout and why the excuses don’t hold water:

[We should never say to ourselves that we can't do something. Because if we put our mind to it, we can do anything. Even if that means defying gravity.]

#10 – Exercise Makes Me Tired

You’re not working out because exercise makes you tired? My first response is that if you’re used to exercising, it gives you energy throughout the day. My second response is that it’s good it makes you tired, since who doesn’t want to get a good nights sleep?

#9 – I’m Not Trying Out For The SAS For 6 More Years Anyway…

Someone recently sent me an article that Time Magazine published that has been making a lot of waves. In it, the author contends that exercise isn’t helpful at all for weight loss, but that the most important part of weight loss is your diet. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

[If the mouse had been reading The Fitness Adviser instead of Time Magazine, he wouldn't be in this kind of bad situation to start with.]

“”In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.”

So Time magazine is saying your diet is more important than exercising for weight loss. I wonder where I’ve heard that before? Wait, I remember now. Here it is:

Huge Announcement!!! Read The Whole Thing!!!

Even though I haven’t been actively discussing exactly what’s been going on with my Jumpers Knee injury, I’ve been very active in treating it. I’ve had both protherapy and platelet rich plasma therapy or prp shots, have been doing physical therapy, and tomorrow I’m having what will hopefully be my last prp shot and with God’s help will be on my way to a complete recovery.

One of the consequences of the injury was that recently, I had to stop exercising completely and concentrate 100% on rehabilitating my legs. This especially hit me after I wrote an article on Going From Zero to Twenty Seven Pull Ups. Because I’m temporarily not at my own place right now so that I can be close to where I have to get the prp, I haven’t had access to a pull up bar and have no idea how many I’m currently able to do. I’ve literally scouted every playground in a 10 mile radius of where I’m staying without finding one pull up bar!

More people than ever are spending a significant amount of time during the day using the computer. While this means that more people have access to an incredible amount of information with the Internet , it also means that you have to lookout for your eyesight, and that it’s getting more difficult to squeeze in a workout during the day. That being said, to every problem, there’s a solution. Here are 5 fitness tips to help you stay in shape and maintain your eyesight while using the computer:

[I'm always curious how people are able to use their laptops outside during the daytime. Doesn't the glare from the sun make it impossible to see the screen?]

Do Fast, Explosive Exercises While a Program is Loading

There are a lot of guys and girls who can’t do one pull up (where your palms face outward), and when I was younger, I was no exception. But by using a few tricks, I was able to drastically increase my shoulder and upper back strength and go from zero to twenty seven pull ups. You can do the same by following these simple tricks:

Can’t Complete One Pull Up Yet? Use a Chair…Or a Buddy!

I used to look down upon the idea of using a “crutch” to complete an exercise if you’re not able to do it. That changed in the army when I saw that it seemed to help people get their first pull up done faster if they train their body to complete the motion.There are two ways of accomplishing this. You can either stand on a chair and do one pull up, which is easier than doing a full pull up from the ground.

Get the mp3 audio version here – Dr. Hauser Interview Part 3

Note: You can also check out Part I and Part II.

Rafi: This is Rafi from thefitnessadviser.com. I just wanted to say before we rap up this last part of the interview with Dr. Hauser, that one of the reasons I asked Dr. Hauser to do this interview about prolotherapy and platelet rich plasma therapy is that I’ve gotten both of these treatments for a really bad case of Jumpers Knee and they’ve helped me when nothing else would. You can checkout My Story to see more about that.

The point is that these treatments aren’t yet fully accepted as mainstream, even though thousands of people are seeking out platelet rich plasma therapy and prolotherapy and getting them, and healing. I really respect what Dr. Hauser is doing, in allowing himself to be out there, on the internet, getting interviewed and trying to spread the word about these amazing treatments that can potentially cure a lot of chronic pain problems and injuries. I’m also happy to be able to be a part of getting the word out about these amazing medical treatments to the general public and to the fitness community.

There’s only one thing that Rush Limbaugh is known for more than his political opinions, and that’s his ability to lose weight fast. In fact, he recently announced on his show that he has lost 80 pounds in 150 days using Quick Weight Loss Centers.

What’s Rush Limbaugh’s diet? Well, apparently it’s too complicated for him to explain, but has something to do with not combining different kinds of proteins at meals, taking supplements, and eating 1,500 calories a day. So if Rush isn’t sharing all the juicy details of his diet, how can you learn how to lose weight like Rush Limbaugh without spending thousands of dollars on a personal trainer to map out your day?

Learning From Rush’s Diet

Let’s analyze what we do know about Rush’s diet program:

1) His entire program focuses on his diet.

2) He’s taking supplements.

3) He’s not mixing proteins at meals.

My name may be Rafi, but I’m going to be “frank” with you, and tell you that this complete and total obsession among people with their body fat percentage has to stop. It was sort of amusing when it started, but now it has crossed the line. Like Jean-Luc Picard once said, “The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!”

[If I get over 100 comments on this post, I will reenact this scene and post it for the entire internet to see. Seriously.]

First, let me just state the facts. In general, women in their 20’s should have between 21%-32% body fat and men in their 20’s should have between 8%-19% body fat according to this. It goes up a few percentage points as you get older. That means that if you have 15% body fat and you’re active as a man or you have 26% and you’re active as a woman, that you’re doing great. In fact, you probably look pretty good too.

When I discuss weight loss, I almost always give the example of losing one pound of fat per week. The reason I do that is because I believe that for weight loss, the healthiest way and the way that leaves you most likely to keep your weight down in the long term is to lose a pound per week.

Why do I believe that? It’s because the same way a lot of people who become rich overnight aren’t able to handle the wealth and squander it quickly, a lot of people who lose weight quickly aren’t able to keep it off and immediately start putting it back on. More than that, if you’re losing weight extremely quickly, in a way you’re starving your body, and I can’t imagine that those kind of eating habits can be healthy for you.

Who doesn’t know of Mr. T and his catchphrase, “I pity the fool”? Well today, I’m going to rant about the people I pity. Here it goes:

[This is Rocky III, where Mr. T first rendered his famous line, "I pity the fool".  My favorite part of the line is at the end where he says "Prediction? Paaiiiin." No matter how many times I've heard it, it makes me laugh every single time.]

I pity the fool who believes the “mainstream nutritionists” who claim that the best diet is low fat and high carb.

I pity the fool who thinks the best way to get into shape is doing long, boring cardio and not short burst interval training.

I pity the fool who doesn’t think walking is good for them.

I pity the fool who trains only for vanity, not realizing there’s more to life and more to being in shape than just looking good.