How Are You Spending Your Summer Vacation?

The sight of blue lupine growing wild by the side of the road. The sound of crickets humming on a hot, summer day while you read in the hammock. The smell of sumac as you hike on a local trail. The taste of freshly cut watermelon. The feel underfoot of the tide rushing back out to the sea.

These are treats mostly relegated to a few summer months. We spend more than half the year eagerly anticipating these simple pleasures, and then rarely have the quiet moment or luxury of extended empty hours to truly enjoy what was so expected and natural when we were children.

Another special summer childhood adventure was overnight camp. Remember the fear at arrival with all the nervous worries? Who are these other kids? What is expected of me? I dont know if I can do it

And then a week or two later, the fear was always replaced with mastery of new sports like sailing or archery, confidence in newly acquired outdoor living skills such as building fires or identifying edible berries, and camaraderie of new friends.

Make the most of these short-lived longer days, great weather, and brief interludes we get in summer. Plan what youll do as if you really did have a chunk of time earmarked for an experience just like those you enjoyed at summer camp. How do you really want to spend this precious season?

Indulge Your Desire to read, listen to Music, Watch Movies
* Go to an outdoor concert and bring a picnic
* read a book outside your preferred genre; indulge an urge for a mystery, romance or thriller
* See a just released romantic comedy or action flick in a nicely chilled theater

Notice the Season and Its Bounty
* Hand-crank ice cream with summer berries
* Pick Your Own corn and other veggies
* Gather seeds from flowers to extend your beds next year

Make New Friends & Time for Favorite Friends
* Plan half-distance play dates with people you dont see often
* Join a book club and offer to host a meeting
* Put a personal profile on one of the online social networking sites

Test & enjoy Your Physical being
* Try sea kayaking or wall climbing
* start or end your day with a neighborhood walk
* strengthen your core with Yoga or pilates

learn Something New
* Immerse yourself in a foreign language
* Try a new style of cooking or perfect a recipe
* teach yourself to make a kite and then fly it!

I encourage you to make the most of this summer. Take a time out from your usual routine and obligations to create space for experimenting with genuine fun and maybe a new passion or two.

If this seems impossible, you need immediate help! Im jesting only a bit. If youve lost track of your inner child, seek out the counsel of close friends (who knew you when you were knee high) or a coach. They can detect those inner yearnings and lost passions. Life is meant to be satisfying and fun.

Gotta go! Fresh rhubarb growing in the backyard is just screaming to be baked in a pie yum, yum.

2007 Andrea R. Williams

Andrea Williams, personal and small business success coach, is the creator of the Fearless, Fabulous project, a 12-week, step-by-step discovery and rejuvenation process to help you gain clarity and commitment about what is most important to you. If you're ready to pump your life with more fun & fulfillment, check out Andrea's coaching programs and resources now at http://www.FearlessFabulousLife.com and sign up for Fearless, Fabulous Female, her free ezine on personal reinvention at midlife.

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Cutting Exercises - A Bodybuilding Myth?

One of the most common goals of fitness enthusiasts is to have low levels of body fat covering their hard-earned muscles. Whether the individual is an athlete that wants to look good in and out of uniform or a fitness instructor that wants to have "toned" arms, everyone is looking for the most effective exercises to reach their goals.

There is certainly no shortage of opinions when it comes to training programs and exercises that trainers and magazines seem to promote to reach these goals, so it is understandable that many bodybuilders and gym-goers can be overwhelmed by information. But what really confuses me is the claim made by gym employees and fitness authors that certain resistance training exercises are for definition and cutting up.

Believe it or not, but no strength coach or exercise physiologist has been able to prove that one exercise rather than others can promote more definition or toning! Can someone explain how leg extensions are a better exercise for muscle definition than squats? This article will dispel these myths and will reveal the best exercises for meeting the goals of increased muscle definition, which is the correct term for toning, cutting up or getting ripped. In fact, lets just eliminate toning from our vocabulary all together.

First a little background for those without a long history of weight training experience. Bodybuilders (that includes any man or woman that is seeking to improve their bodys appearance!) traditionally perform a number of exercises for a body part during a single resistance training session. For example, in a chest workout one might start with bench presses, move to incline dumbbell press, and finish with dumbbell flyes or the pec-deck.

Now according to many personal trainers and fitness magazines, the rationale behind this type of program is that the pressing exercises are best for strength and mass development and the pec-deck would provide for definition. Also, people believe that these definition exercises should be emphasized in order to develop a ripped body (that is, low levels of body fat). Unfortunately, it seems bodybuilders and fitness buffs alike have been led astray, and the end result is a poorly planned program that does not lead to the desired results.

Next we need a brief, yet simplistic, review of human anatomy and physiology to reason why these cutting exercises (i.e. pec-deck) do not do the job. For our purposes there are 2 components determining body composition, muscle and fat. For most people it is the amount of fat that is the limiting factor for them in the development of muscular definition and not the quality of their muscle. If an overweight individual were to be stripped of all their fat, they too would have muscle definition.

On the other hand, a skinny individual can increase their muscle definition by lifting weights and increasing muscle hypertrophy (growth). The body cannot tell the difference between exercises! It responds according to the demands applied to the body. If you lift weights the muscle will grow so that it is stronger and can lift the weight easier the next time. If you eat too much and do not exercise, the energy is deposited as fat and your muscle definition will be lost. It is a very simple equation!

The pec-deck can still be incorporated into workout designs, but it is not the best exercise for promoting a better body composition. In fact, this isolation exercise recruits only the chest muscles and ignores the triceps and deltoids, unlike the previously mentioned presses. And remember that more muscles result in greater energy expenditure and a greater overall training stimulus.

Another myth that seems to propagate is that sets performed for a very high number of repetitions are most effective for cutting up. Refer back to the basic anatomical principle that the bodys appearance is determined by the amounts of both muscle and fat, and most importantly that low levels of body fat are necessary for muscle definition. Using a lightweight to do a huge number of repetitions might not show off your muscles better than using a moderate weight and performing a moderate number of repetitions.

Why not? Because there would likely be no difference in the amount of total calories burned between the two workouts provided each performed a similar exercise volume in the workout. The greater number of repetitions in the one workout would be offset by the greater intensity (weight) used in the other workout. However, a heavier weight will stimulate more muscle growth. More muscle results in a faster metabolism and theoretically greater energy expenditure at rest. So over the long haul the more intense (heavier lifting) workout may be the optimal choice for reducing body fat. In addition, larger muscles are easier to see!

Okay, so what is going to bring you the results (i.e. definition) that you want? Keep the exercises basic and intense (i.e. moderate to heavy weight). most bodybuilders are better off to do 4-5 sets of bench and incline presses (for a total of 8-10 sets) rather than including 3 sets of pec-deck in the traditional manner. The volume of exercise will be the same but the difficulty of exercise will be harder and the cumulative effects will greater.

Aerobic exercise is not essential for low levels of body fat but can certainly promote greater cardiovascular fitness and help prevent excessive weight gain. Interval training has now been shown in 2 studies to be more effective than slow cardio.

So stick with multi-muscle strength exercises and interval training to burn more calories out of the gym. It really adds up to more calorie burn and less body fat. That is a far better approach than relying on cutting exercises.

And finally, make the proper dietary changes to promote muscle gains and body fat reductions. nutrition is the #1 factor for fat loss. If you don't have good nutrition, no exercise program will help you lose fat. In the end you will be healthier and will achieve superior muscle definition!

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.

craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked cutting workouts have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Get ripped with new fat loss workouts each month and get more results in less time. craig is using the Muscle Gaining Secrets Workouts from Jay Ferruggia to gain 25 pounds of muscle without supplements.

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Golf Swing Teaching Aids

If you are extremely serious about playing the game of golf then at some stage you have used some different golf swing teaching aids in order to help improve your game and so help you to get more out of it. You could be someone who has get every book that is now available on the subject or you might be someone who has decided to invest a lot of money in by high tech gadgetry in order for you to improve your swing.

But unfortunately what teaching aid works for one person may not well work for you and vice versa. Also what seems quite obvious is that some of the golf swing teaching aids you see today have become extremely complicated and also expensive. There are cases where a person is likely to spend more than a $1,000 on ways of trying to improve their swing and still have not seen any improvement in relation to their golf score. Below we provide some useful teaching aids that you may want to consider purchasing and all for less than $100. The best thing about these particular aids is that they can be used in the comfort of your own home (or your office) as long as you have plenty of ceiling height.

Freddy Connect
This aid has been specifically designed to help a golf player reduce the amount of slice or hook that they put into a shot. This very simple device can be attached to any of your golf clubs at the base of the shaft but just above the head. When you swing your club there are two lights on the device which then light up. If when you swing your club you can see only one light then you are swinging the club straight. But if you can see both lights (separately) then you have not swung it straight and the ball when hit will be either sliced or hooked away from you.

Hinged golf Club
This is a kind of all in one teaching aid. When you use this particular club and your swing is flawed in any way then this causes the hinge on the club to break. Probably the quickest way for a person to tell when they are making a mistake when it comes to the way in which they are swinging their club. This particular golf swing teaching aid is an effective way for any golf player to improve their swing. As not only does it help to improve muscle memory but after around 4 or 5 intact swings with it you will soon see how you swinging the club perfectly.

Weighted golf Club
This particular kind of golf swing teaching aids is designed specifically to target all those muscles that are used in the body when swinging a golf club. This particular aid not only helps to improve the distance at which the ball is driven but also helps the player to improve the amount of power that they put into each golf swing. With this particular device you will know where the club head is relation to your body at all times and so help you to produce much stronger and accurate drives in the future.

Click here now for FREE ACCESS to our unique golf swing teaching aids that will have you hitting the ball more consistently within 30 minutes.

You're about to learn the simple secret that will lengthen your drive & cut your handicap by 7-12 strokes in just 2 weeks (or less)...

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Golf Shoes - Do I Really Need Them?

It seems like everybody and their brother wants to play golf these days. Stemming from the 1920s when walter Hagen became the first person to actually make a living by playing golf, to the 1960s when arguably the greatest player ever, Jack Nicklaus, made $33 with his first paycheck as a pro, golf has quickly become a multi-billion dollar industry, with players routinely making million dollar checks for a win, not to mention these ridiculous endorsement deals. Tiger woods makes grabbing a check for $100 million from Nike look like child's play.

Now you're saying, Hm, I want a piece of that. I'd better get some golf balls and clubs and hit the course. Ah, such a common mistake. What did you forget? Shoes!!

Now, wait a minute you say. They're just shoes, right? Wrong! Would a basketball player hit the hardwood wearing tennis shoes? Nope. He would risk spraining his ankle and couldn't move as effectively. Would a bowler hit the lanes wearing football cleats? Nope, he'd be on his butt in no time and well, the owner's may not think too kindly of cleats indoors. The case is the same in golf, but even more dramatic.

Not only do proper shoes keep your feet dry during play, but they will keep a very important tool of your golf swing rooted; your feet! Although it doesn't stand out as much clubs that fit properly, proper golf shoes are a key to developing a good swing. Why? Think about how much torque a golf swing puts on your legs and feet throughout the golf swing. Watch the pros when they blast their drives 330+ yards. As a they turn away from the ball, their feet fight to stay in place, rooted like two tree trunks to the ground by their cleats, and their cleats only. The same happens on the way down. They'll swing through with the torque on their feet almost ripping the ground below them, but their cleats keep them rooted throughout. Imagine how ugly this would be with no traction. They couldn't swing as hard without slipping, thus creating a lesser potential for distance.

A common mistake new golfers make is to hit the links in an old pair of tennis shoes, thinking golf shoes aren't important. Well I have news for you. If you go out in tennis shoes, it's going to be like swinging in socks on a tile floor. It doesn't exactly grip very well, especially when it's wet.

What this can lead to is a bad weight shift from the start, because your body's natural balancing mechanisms are doing everything they can to keep you on your feet. I see it all the time on the driving range. people are out to have some harmless fun whacking some golf balls, which is all in good fun of course. But then I see them twisting, slipping, and sliding all over the place from the massive amount of torque, all while ingraining bad swing habits.

So if you are serious about learning how to play golf, even just for recreation, do yourself a favor and pick up a good pair of golf shoes. Make sure the pair you decide to buy fit well. If your feet slide around in them, your balance can be thrown off as well. Make sure your toes are in the proper spots. And guys, golf shoes aren't masculine anyway, so check your ego at the door on this one fellas; and ladies, don't try to squeeze into a size smaller. You're gonna be on your feet a lot, so you'll want them to be comfortable. Tie them tight all the way down and you'll have the best chance of being balanced. But of course, be comfortable too.

If you're on a tight budget, you can get a pair of brand new FJ GreenJoys for $50, or an off brand for even less. I promise you, they will make a much bigger difference than that $80 dollar lob wedge you think you need.

Make sure your shoes fit right, have a good set of spikes in them, and you'll be well on your way to a stable base for golf and probably more distance as well.

You really want to know more about me? Wow, thanks!
As you can tell by reading, I know my stuff. Why?
Well I'm a PGTAA Class A Master teaching Professional
I've been playing golf for almost 20 years, so I get around
Give this link a gander if you want to increase your golf fitness - Fitness for Golf
View My Blog!
Thanks for reading!
Fairways, greens, Pars and Birdies!
Cody Wheeler

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