Walkers may seem exercise-adverse to those who pursue more physically challenging activities but walkers intrinsically know the simple secret to calorie burning: stay in motion.

Aside from a good pair of shoes with cushioned support, it won’t cost you anything to go for a walk. Do it daily or at least 5 times a week.

Follow a Simple Routine

Keep your walking gait at a moderate pace of at least 3 1/2 miles per hour, or pick up the pace and do a brisk walk of about 4 mph. You won’t break into much of a sweat or get your heart rate up as much as other cardio exercises, but calories are burned at every intensity level and walking (or hiking) gets the job done. The popular “10,000 steps per day” walking program is designed with a goal of doing 5 miles per day, which is an excellent target. Each 2000-2500 steps covers a mile, and each mile you walk will burn about 100 calories.

If you can’t lift or do ellipticals, swim or ride a bike, walking is an excellent and easy way to burn calories. It’s also inexpensive!

A word of warning though: appetite is partially regulated by body temperature control and since water cools the body much faster than air, studies show that fitness swimming in cold water tends to trigger appetite. So if you feel famished after swimming, consider eating a small protein snack rather than a big meal. You don’t want to wolf down the calories you just spent an hour burning off in the pool.

If you are a non-swimmer, or love the water but aren’t into doing laps, consider joining a water aerobics class where the resistance of the water provides a gentle but effective cardio workout. An aquacise class has great music that everyone enjoys—and you don’t even have to get your hair wet!

Home treadmills art a tough sea too navigate for most buyers – there art so numerous different brands and they all seem alike too outsiders. Luckily, over the past 20 or the years, I’ve had to repair merely about all treadmill ever produced. In other words, my pain wilt be your salvation!

My 1st piece of advice is: avoid anything and everything from Icon Health and Fitness. They’re the manufacturer of the units you’ll find at places like Sears – nothing against Sears, but the treadmills they sell tend to be on the lower final of the quality scale. Their treadmills seem to have specs that are too good to be true for their cost and, truth be told, they art. The old saying “you get what you pay for” comes in too act with them.

Tiny motors with high RPMs to give those a perceived higher horsepower (most of their motors should really be rated at under 1.5 HP regardless of what they tell you – a motor the size of a soda canst should not be powering a full sized treadmill!), lots of plastic pieces, small rollers, and generally unstable machines art par for the routine for the Icon brands like Proform, Weslo, Healthrider and image. Just stay away from them! There are improved treadmills even at the more affordable prices that Icon tempts the unlearned consumer with.

On with translating the arcane lore that is treadmill purchasing for the lay person.

Let’s begin with the motor. The 1st thing you want to do is make sure the motor is rated with “Continuous Duty.” any sales person or manufacturer who gives you a “Peak” rating is trying to sell you a bag of magic beans. Peak is best described as the maximum a motor will perform at before it breaks down. What’s more important is: how the heck is that motor going to perform when you’re actually using it? Another object a shady salesperson may mention is that a common home circuit (120v/15amps) will only let you run about 2.5 HP and any motor larger than that is a waste of money. Technically that is correct (about the amps vs. HP, not the waste of money), but the larger motors will tend to last longer as they are not running at the higher RPMs of a smaller motor. And, if nothing else, the larger the motor, the smoother the “ride.” A bigger motor will allow you to run or stroll on it without slipping.

The next thing to appear at is the size of a treadmill’s rollers. The bigger the rollers, the longer your belt will last and the improved the running experience.

Next, and this is my favourite thing – especially when recommending cardio equipment too my in-laws – the warranty. Like something else, the better the warranty the more piece of mind you will have. The five year parts warranty on Spirit treadmills, for example, is one of the best in the business. For me, the more faith a manufacturer has in its own produce (i.e. the warranty), the more faith I have in that product. Of course, doing repairs I absolutely love the lower final warranties as it wherewithal more paying labour for me!

What’s next? The weight and stability of the device. There is nothing worse than getting on a treadmill and having it transfer back and forth, or shake, or, even worse, creak as you run on it. The heavier the portion the longer it will last. If you’re used to running on a treadmill at your local gym and then acquire on most home units, you’ll immediately notice the difference. You don’t need to be running around on anything that feels like it is going to drop apart immediately do you? Don’t answer, that was a rhetorical treadmill question.

The tread and the deck are where majority problems for treadmills happen. When the friction from your running builds up between the deck and the tread, the badness begins. Stick with the 4-ply belts/treads that facilitate to reduce the amount of friction, and look at units with reversible, phenolic wax coated decks. Reversible decks let you flip over your running surface to use the opposite side when the original wears down. It’s like having a free second deck if you wear out the first one.

Programs. Don’t be fooled by this. Most individuals only wind up using 3-4 programs. If the treadmill has 20, that’s cool, but you’ll rarely use those. If you do heart rate training, then heart rate control is great. If not, it’s merely an extra you’ll never use…like the clock you’ve never set on your VCR.

Speed and Incline are worth talking about. Most treadmills canst go up to about ten miles per hour and a ten degree incline. Don’t let speed or incline become a deciding factor unless you’re doing a lot of tall speed or high incline training. Obviously, electronically controlled speed and incline are the way to go. If the feature are manual merely transfer on.

Finally, check test out the shock absorption. You want to make sure you aren’t running on a hard surface. This is a “feel” object more than a “scientific” one. If the deck is bouncy, transfer on. If the deck feels like running on concrete, move on. If the deck moves from side to side, move on. You need to get a deck that feels good, with merely enough give and little to no lateral motion.

Beyond that fans, speakers, cup holders, magazine racks and even television sets on the treadmills console art all just icing on the cake. It’s better to get a good treadmill without a fan or TV and spend $50 to buy your own than too obtain a crappy, fully loaded treadmill which will eventually merely become an expensive coat rack for dirty clothes.

Now, I know I already typed “finally” but there is one last piece to consider: PRICE. You can just obtain what you canst acquire but don’t be fooled into buying a lemon. There are decent (and some downright extraordinary) treadmills at just about all price point. I’ll go over some of the best, at least in my experience, treadmills in the under $1000 range in the next week.

Don’t despair; there is a good treadmill out there you can actually afford

About the Author

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor. For more information you can visit top rated treadmills at http://www.topratedtreadmills.info

Most of the physical fitness trainers, and coaches agree that doing some sort of resistance training, and cardio training, sets up a good foundation for all around fitness. What most people like to do is alternate days. M-W-F do resistance training and on Tues-Thurs-Sat do aerobic training or some other variation. Now this is not a bad thing but it can be very time consuming and for people who have real busy lives it might be hard to make this kind of commitment.

I say why not do both in one training session? Now I am not saying to do both in the same day. I am talking about doing a workout for about 30-40 minutes that gives you resistance and cardio for that time frame. Instead of making them separate, combine them into a more efficient workout.

In other words you perform a resistance exercise, it could be your own bodyweight, weights, cables, tubing, it doesn’t matter. Immediately after this is completed you perform a cardio movement. It could be running in place, jumping jacks, squat thrusts, anything that is aerobic for about (30) seconds, and then continue on to the next movement. Doing say 6-8 resistance exercises and in between (30 seconds of aerobics) for let’s say 3 sets. Now these 3 sets are without resting you are continually moving for roughly 35 minutes.

Let me give you an example: Let’s use weights. 1} 10 reps of lunges, then run in place. 2} 10 reps of squats, then run in place. 3} 10 reps of bicep curls, now run in place. 4} 10 reps of dips or pushups, now run in place. You can choose any exercise you want just hit all major bodyparts. Like I said choose 6-8 resistance exercises and 30 seconds of aerobics and do at least 3 sets alternating. This is fat burning exercise.

Believe me when I tell you this is not for the faint of heart. You will be breathing heavily quickly. The beauty is it saves time and cuts workout time in half. When I first tried this I did make it thru the 3 sets but it wasn’t easy. If you have to stop do so. Catch a breath and then complete it. You will gradually improve as you keep doing this exercise protocol.

Now for the people who don’t have weights at home or do not want to do this at their local workout establishment, or are just looking for a change of pace, I have found the perfect alternative. A complete system for under $50. For men and women. You get a 3 cable color system for tension, a video to follow along, a manual, and travel bag. It’s very portable. And the workout you get in 35 minutes is fabulous.

When I am pressed for time and want a killer workout this is what I use. So I get both resistance and cardio in (1) 35 minute workout. I highly recommend this product for people who want a gym in a bag. Excellent for people who travel. Give it a try and please let me know what you think.

About the Author

Click here for cardio workouts to help you lose weight, improve your cardio fitness that don’t need gyms, machines, or make you run a single step.

Check here for MMA workout info.

by Gene B. Pineda

An elliptical cardio machine is an exercise machine that offers an intense upper body and lower body workout as well as a cardiovascular workout. The combination of upper body and lower body routine exercises is said to increase the reduction of fats and calories in a person. The cardiovascular workout from the elliptical cardio machine is intensive enough to suit most doctors and low impact enough to reduce bone fractures and damage to the tendons, ligaments and joints.

What to Consider when Buying an Elliptical Cardio Machine

In most elliptical cardio machine purchases, the individuals usually buy them for home use. One thing that you should keep in mind when in the market for an elliptical cardio machine is the size of the machine. This will come in handy when contemplating where to put the trainer machine and also if it fits you or not.

Although, most trainer machines are designed to fit the average person, not all buyers of the elliptical cardio machines are average sized persons. Try the machine on for size before buying it to be sure if you are the right size for it. Your knees and elbows should not hit any of the parts of the elliptical cardio machine.

The pedals should also be comfortable for your shoe size and have non-slip textures to avoid your slipping on them as you work out. A person’s weight should also be considered when choosing an elliptical machine. Some machines are too lightweight to have a person over 200 pounds.

Another thing to consider when buying an elliptical cardio machine is the noise that the machine makes as you use it. Some of the elliptical cardio machine models are relatively quiet but some may have an annoying humming sound.

It is best to try out the machine in a quiet room similar to the quietness in your home to see if it is quiet enough for you. You can always wear earphones and listen to music while working out but you should also consider the other people in your home especially if the elliptical cardio machine you have in mind is more noisy than expected.

The features of the elliptical cardio machine are some of the biggest attractions it can have. Figure out what features are important to you and which can fit your budget. Some features are needed especially for those who are working out on the machine for health reasons. The elliptical cardio machine can help you trim down and stay fit in a relatively safe way. This is why many doctors recommend a good cardiovascular workout in this low impact machine for their patients.

About the Author

If you love this article, you will also love another article written by this article’s author on ellipticals for sale and discount elliptical.

by Daniel Broderick

Millions of Americans and billions of world citizens look in the mirror every day disparaged by their image. Everyone has tried this fad diet and that exercise regimen to no avail. If you’re one of these many weight conscious citizens, you’re far from alone. But there is still hope. It’s time we kick our fat fighting strategies up a notch. The idea behind losing weight is simple: you need to burn more calories than you take in. One of the easiest and most effective ways of doing this is the speed your metabolism as this will allow you to passively burn more calories. Herein you’ll learn how to speed your metabolism in three simple steps.

Step 1: Eat many small meals per day.

The goal here is 6-8 small meals. This golden bit of information is no secret. The reason this works is simple. If you only eat a few meals a day, your body regularly thinks it’s being starved. If your body feels threatened by starvation, it will store everything you eat as fat so that it has sustenance until the next meal. Don’t starve your body.

Some people might think it’s too difficult to eat 6-8 meals a day with their hectic schedule, but it’s really not. Take a protein shake and a bag of peanuts to work; they each count as a meal.

A meal doesn’t have to be enormous. In fact, all of your meals should be fairly small; anywhere from 150 to 400 calories. This is just enough to provide energy for the next couple hours until you eat again, so it will be less prone to store as fat.

Step 2: Build those muscles.

This step is twofold and can’t be stressed enough. The first and most relevant way this will speed your metabolism is by requiring more calories to sustain. Every additional pound of muscle you add will burn approximately 50 more calories over the course of a day without you doing any additional exercise! Isn’t that powerful? Imagine adding 10 pounds of muscle; you would burn an additional 500 calories over the course of a day! That’s an extremely intense cardio workout at your current weight, without moving a muscle!

The other way in which this step helps is common sense. It takes calories to do the workouts that build the muscle. You’ll be burning calories while in the process of building muscle to burn more calories… the benefits are exponential.

Step 3: HIIT

This third and final step to speed your metabolism may be a little less known. It’s called high intensity interval training or HIIT. This type of training is exceedingly beneficial for speeding up your metabolism.

The basic principle is to sprint for 60 or so seconds, then walk for the same amount of time, in intervals, for 15 to 20 minutes. This causes your body to produce excess catecholamines and growth hormone. These two hormones are essential in fast metabolism and will help burn calories for up to 72 hours after the training session. There is far too much on this subject to go into detail here, but I highly recommend doing a little side research on high intensity interval training.

Follow these three simple steps to speed your metabolism and I guarantee you’ll see solid results. They are not very difficult and will not require too much extra time out of your day. They will however produce the body that you’re looking for.

It takes effort and dedication, but doesn’t anything that’s worth fighting for?

About the Author

Learn more about how to speed your metabolism and high intensity interval training. This highly informative website will help you get started today.

by Jeremy S. Abrahamson

With hundreds of models and dozens upon dozens of brands, it can be a difficult task to choose the right elliptical trainer for you and your family. The first thing to consider is your budget and with this you can narrow down which elliptical trainer is right for you.

It is not recommended to look for an elliptical trainer for under $800, as anything in a price range lower than that is of such inferior quality that it will not me your, and anyone’s, exercise needs. This article will take a look at what to look for in each of the different price ranges.

Elliptical Trainers for $800-$1500

Finding a trainer in this range that can be a quality piece of workout equipment can be very difficult. Most of the higher quality elliptical trainers will cost in excess of $1500, but there are some really good models in this price range if you know what to look for.

The first feature to consider is step distance. Many trainers in this price range offer a very small step distance. This means a much poorer workout for you. Look to see if you can find a machine with the step distance you require to complete a solid workout.

Most of the elliptical trainers in this price range offer some advanced features like pulse trackers, varied programs, and self programmable routines. Do not expect much, as was stated earlier when shopping in this price range the most important thing is that you get a machine that can stand up to your workout.

Shopping in the $1500-$3000 Price Range

Here is where some of the machines start to get much more advanced features. Workout machines in this price range are starting to push towards the very expensive, so the first thing to consider when looking in this range is what kind of warranty, service, and support comes with your elliptical trainer.

Make sure that the trainer has at least a two year warranty. Also, you should be able to find most if not all of the features that you are looking for, so be sure to double check that the trainer comes with everything you need before you buy.

Shopping in the $3000+ Range

Here is where you get the truly gym class elliptical trainers. For most people, spending this much money on a trainer is not a good idea because these are designed for everyday 7-20 hour a day use. For a normal home user that is just not practical.

In addition, most, if not all, of the features available on units in this price range are available on trainers in the lower cost bracket. You would probably do better to simply find a trainer in that price range that has all the features you need.

About the Author

If you love this article, you will also love another article written by this article’s author on exercise bike parts and elliptical exercise bike.

By Michelle Dixon

You may have decided that using a diet meal replacement plan or diet food plan would be the easiest way for you to lose weight. However, there are so many plans available; you may not know which program would work the best for you. In this article I will compare two very popular diet food, meal replacement plans Nutrisystem and MediFast. These diet plans may seem similar, although once you read about each plan, you will find they are very different.

Nutrisystem Overview:

Nutrisystem offers prepackaged, pre-portioned diet meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. You are advised to add fresh vegetables, fruits, salads to lunch, and dinner meals. The meals are low calorie, yet nutritionally sound with the added fresh fruit and vegetables. The diet meals are based on low glycemic, good carbs, with the right amount of protein and fiber that your body needs for increased fat and calorie burning.

The Nutrisystem program also offers a free weight loss community website where you can get free diet counseling, weight loss tips and community support in your weight loss endeavors.

Nutrisystem advises if you eat their prepackaged diet meals and follow their plan, you can potentially lose 1 to 3 pounds a week.

MediFast Overview:

MediFast offers prepackaged diet meal replacement foods including shakes, soups, bars, pudding, drinks and cereals. Their name basically sums up how their plan works; you are “fasting” most of the day. Their most popular program is the 5 and 1 diet program where you eat 5 MediFast meals a day and 1 low calorie, low fat meal you cook and prepare yourself. Their plan is designed to be calorie deficient (between 800 – 1000 calories a day), thereby allowing your body to use fat for energy.

MediFast also offers a free weight loss community website where you can get diet support, weight loss tips, diet recipes and more.

MediFast advises if you follow their 5 in 1 diet program and use their diet meal replacements you can potentially lose up to 20 pounds in a month.

The Cost:

Nutrisystem costs about $11 a day, $77 a week and $308 a month plus shipping, although if you choose their auto-ship program, you will get a discount and a free week of diet meals and free shipping.

MediFast costs about $10 a day, $70 a week or $275 a month if you order one of their 4-week variety packages.

Both Nutrisystem and MediFast offer a money back guarantee minus shipping if you choose to return unopened packages of the diet meals within 30 days.

The Difficulty:

Nutrisystem: Using the Nutrisystem diet meals for weight loss should be an easy transition since you will be eating regular meals and snacks. You may find the calorie reduction in the meals leave you hungry or not satisfied. The convenience of the prepackaged, very little preparation of the diet meals should make the program easier to follow. Staying on the diet for a long term may become difficult because of the lower calorie intake makes you feel unsatisfied. The taste of the foods (which will be discussed next) may also be hard to enjoy.

MediFast: Transitioning to the MediFast meal replacement plan may be difficult at first since you will be replacing most of your meals with a meal replacement shake, soup or bar. Sometimes a drastic change in your eating habits can be a bonus because it may give you a greater feeling of dieting control. Staying on the diet for a long term may be very difficult because of the monotony of replacing 5 meals a day with the MediFast foods and the taste of the foods.

The Taste:

Nutrisystem: There are reports and reviews throughout the internet regarding the taste of Nutrisystem’s diet meals. Some people rave about the taste (although these “raves” may be biased if the person is promoting the program), and many people absolutely hate the taste of the diet meals. On average, many Nutrisystem dieters report they have favorite diet meals, while some suffer through the taste of the meals because of the convenience of the program and the weight loss achieved. Recently, Nutrisystem listened to their customers and introduced many new “better tasting” diet meals that may be more palatable.

MediFast: There are also mixed reviews on the taste of MediFast meal replacements. On average, many MediFast dieters report that the tastes of the meal replacement foods are “okay,” not overly tasty, yet good enough to stay on the diet program to achieve weight loss goals.

Conclusion:

Nutrisystem diet meal plan is a convenient, diet food program that offers a membership site with diet counseling and diet tips. The transition to using their diet foods should not be too difficult since it is recommended to eat 5 diet meals a day supplemented with fresh fruit and vegetables. Since the diet meals should be less calories than you normally eat, and designed to increase your body’s ability to burn fat, you can expect to lose 1 to 3 pounds a week. The diet plan may work best for people who may need a support group for weight loss, yet are too busy to shop for and prepare diet meals, and don’t have time to continually analyze food calories and fat grams.

MediFast diet meal replacement program is also a convenient weight loss program that offers a community forum, diet support and tips. The transition to using their diet meal replacements 5 times a day may be difficult. Yet, it may also help many dieters resolve to stay on the diet plan since the results may be realized fast with up to 20 pounds lost in the first month. The diet program may work best for people who need to lose a significant amount of weight. In addition, it can also work well for those who desire convenient meal replacements, yet also wish to prepare a fresh meal once a day.