Inspirational ad: NIKE - Make Yourself!

Make your body. Make your life. Make yourself!

Success - How Bad Do You Want It? (Giavanni Ruffin & ET the Hip Hop Prea...

Posting this to share this MOTIVATING and INSPIRATIONAL video for all to see. Crush your limitations, believe and achieve!



Success - How Bad Do You Want It?
Speech by: Eric Thomas (The Hip Hop Preacher)
Athlete: Giavanni Ruffin (former running back for ECU)
Video by: Greyskale Multimedia

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One runs on fat, the other makes you fat!

This one made me chuckle! Now that the weather is cooling down, think about getting some outdoor cardio via hiking, walking, running, and/or cycling! Stay fit my friends!

Fattest States From 2010

Mississippi is the fattest state for 5th straight year, Colorado still leanest



"For 2010 Mississippi has claimed the title of fattest state for the fifth consecutive year, while Colorado continues its streak as the leanest. Maine rose the most places in the rankings over last year, while Oregon dropped the most, according to a new analysis by CalorieLab, Inc.

Most Obese States
Tennessee jumped from fourth place to tie last year’s second place state Alabama. Nine states have obese populations that exceed 30 percent over a three-year average, and in ten states two-thirds of the citizens were either overweight or obese by CDC standards in 2009.

Also not faring well this year was Maine, which rose six places to be the 29th fattest state, from last year’s 35th placing.

Thinnest States
Colorado repeats as the slimmest state, despite a slight increase in obesity of 0.2 percent over three years. In connection with a previous ranking Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado told CalorieLab, “We’re not spared from the national obesity epidemic, and we must remain vigilant in order to guard against it. We’re doing all we can to encourage Coloradans — especially our kids — to take advantage of the natural resources our state offers in order to stay fit, healthy and happy.”

Connecticut was the second skinniest state, with the District of Columbia third, with its three-year average obesity rate actually falling by 0.8 percent from last year. Alaska and Oregon were the only other states whose three-year average obesity rates fell.

Regional Obesity by State Trends
In general, states in the West and New England rank lowest in the fattest states rankings, while states in the South and the Rust Belt tend to rank highest.

CalorieLab computed the fattest state rankings for this year based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rankings use a three-year average in order to smooth out statistical fluctuations."

Article written by Calorielab

Physical Activity Can Reduce the Genetic Predisposition to Obesity by 40 Percent, Study Finds

"Although the whole population can benefit from a physically active lifestyle, in part through reduced obesity risk, a new study shows that individuals with a genetic predisposition to obesity can benefit even more. The research, carried out by Dr. Ruth Loos from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues, published in PLoS Medicine suggests that the genetic predisposition to obesity can be reduced by an average of 40% through increased physical activity.

The authors used a cohort study of 20,430 people living in Norwich, UK and examined 12 different genetic variants which are known to increase the risk of obesity. The researchers tested how many of these variants each study participants had inherited from either parent. They then assessed the overall genetic susceptibility to obesity by summing the number of variants inherited into a 'genetic predisposition score'. Most individuals inherited between 10 and 13 variants, but some had inherited more than 17 variants, while others fewer than 6. In addition the researchers assessed occupational and leisure-time physical activities in each individual by using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The researchers then used modeling techniques to examine whether a higher 'genetic predisposition score' was associated with a higher body mass index (BMI)/obesity risk and, most importantly, they also tested whether a physically active lifestyle could attenuate the genetic influence on BMI and obesity risk.

The researchers found that each additional genetic variant in the score was associated with an increase in BMI equivalent to 445g in body weight for a person 1.70 m tall and that the size of this effect was greater in inactive people than in active people. In individuals who had a physically active lifestyle, this increase was only 379 g/variant, or 36% lower than in physically inactive individuals in whom the increase was 592 g/variant. Furthermore, in the total sample each additional obesity-susceptibility variant increased the odds of obesity by 1.1-fold. However, the increased odds per variant for obesity risk were 40% lower in physically active individuals (1.095 odds/variant) compared to physically inactive individuals (1.16 odds/variant).

These findings challenge deterministic views of the genetic predisposition to obesity that are often held by the public, as they suggest that even people at greater genetic risk of obesity can benefit from adopting a healthy lifestyle.

The authors say: "Our findings further emphasize the importance of physical activity in the prevention of obesity.""

Article reprinted from the Science Daily, originally written by PLoS Medicine.

Pancreatic Cancers Use Fructose, Common in a Western Diet, to Fuel Growth

"Pancreatic cancers use the sugar fructose, very common in the Western diet, to activate a key cellular pathway that drives cell division, helping the cancer to grow more quickly, a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

Although it’s widely known that cancers use glucose, a simple sugar, to fuel their growth, this is the first time a link has been shown between fructose and cancer proliferation, said Dr. Anthony Heaney, an associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.

“The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it’s a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver,” said Heaney, who also serves as director of the Pituitary Tumor and Neuroendocrine Program at UCLA. “In this study, we show that cancers can use fructose just as readily as glucose to fuel their growth.”

The study appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research.

Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a corn-based sweetener that has been on the market since about 1970. HFCS accounts for more than 40 percent of the caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages, and it is the sole sweetener used in American soft drinks.

Between 1970 and 1990, the consumption of HFCS in the U.S. has increased over 1,000 percent, according to an article in the April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Food companies use HFCS—a mixture of fructose and glucose—because it’s inexpensive, easy to transport and keeps foods moist. And because it is so sweet, it’s cost effective for companies to use small quantities of HCFS in place of more expensive sweeteners or flavorings.

In his study, Heaney and his team took pancreatic tumors from patients and cultured and grew the malignant cells in petri dishes. They then added glucose to one set of cells and fructose to another. Using mass spectrometry, they were able to follow the carbon-labeled sugars in the cells to determine what exactly they were being used for and how.

Heaney found that the pancreatic cancer cells could easily distinguish between glucose and fructose even though they are very similar structurally, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the cancer cells metabolized the sugars in very different ways. In the case of fructose, the pancreatic cancer cells used the sugar in the transketolase-driven non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway to generate nucleic acids, the building blocks of RNA and DNA, which the cancer cells need to divide and proliferate.

“Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable monosaccharide substrates that are similarly metabolized, and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose,” the study states. “However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters ... these findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients, given dietary refined fructose consumption.”

As in anti-smoking campaigns, a federal effort should be launched to reduce refined fructose intake, Heaney said.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications,” Heaney said. “Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of HFCS in our diets.”

Heaney said that while this study was done in pancreatic cancer, these finding may not be unique to that cancer type.

Going forward, Heaney and his team are exploring whether it’s possible to block the uptake of fructose in the cancer cells with a small molecule, taking away one of the fuels they need to grow. The work is being done in cell lines and in mice, Heaney said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Hirschberg Foundation and the Jonsson Cancer Center."

Article written by Anthony Heaney, M.D., Ph.D., originally posted on UCLA's website.

Can Wii Fit Make You Fit?

"Wii Hula and Step Games Can Provide Exercise Benefits—at Intermediate or Higher Levels, Reports The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Philadelphia, PA (March 9, 2011) - Playing two Wii Fit video games—Step and Hula—can provide adequate exercise to improve health and physical fitness, reports a study in the March issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

These Wii Fit games "can be used as an effective mode of physical activity to improve health in adult women," according to the study by honors students Jennifer R. Worley and Sharon N. Rogers, and their advisor, Robert R. Kraemer, Ed.D., FACSM, of Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond. However, the researchers emphasize that players "should strive to participate at higher (intermediate) game levels" to gain exercise benefits.

Active Video Games Have Potential to Improve Fitness
Healthy young women were studied while playing Wii Fit games: Step, a step aerobics workout; and Hula, a simulated hula-hoop game. Oxygen consumption, energy expenditure, and other measures of the body's response to exercise were assessed as players advanced through different levels of each game.

At the starting levels, neither game produced high levels of oxygen consumption or perceived exercise intensity. However, as the women advanced to the intermediate levels, the exercise intensity increased. In both the Step and Hula games, the intermediate level produced energy expenditure equivalent to a fairly brisk walking pace of 3.5 miles per hour.

Of the two games, the Hula game provided higher oxygen consumption and energy expenditure. "This could be attributed to the fact that the hula involves more total body movement exercise than step and uses more muscle groups," Ms. Worley and coauthors write. At the intermediate level of the Hula game, players could burn approximately five calories per minute.

Video games have become a popular recreational activity for many people. One study found that up to 45 percent of U.S. adults play video games, with evidence that those who spend more time playing have lower physical (and mental) health. In recent years, several new games have been introduced that seek to incorporate physical activity into video gaming. The new study is one of the first to evaluate whether these games really provide sufficient exercise to improve health and fitness.

Based on the new findings in healthy young women, at least some Wii Fit games—particularly the Hula game—do indeed provide meaningful exercise. "[The] findings suggest that the Wii Fit can be used as an effective activity for promoting physical health in this population," the researchers conclude. However, they stress that the games don't provide much benefit at the starting level—players who want a real workout will need to play at the intermediate or higher game levels."

Article was taken from the March issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which can be found here.

Should you eat protein before exercise, or after?

"Eating protein after exercising may help rev up the body's muscle-making machinery, in both young and older men alike, a small study suggests.

The study of 48 men - half in their twenties and the other half in their seventies -- found that in both age groups, consuming a protein drink after exercise led to a greater increase in muscle protein, compared with downing the drink after a period of rest.

What's more, muscle protein increased at nearly the same rate in young and elderly men, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

That suggests that, contrary to some researchers' speculation, older age may not impair the way the body digests and absorbs protein from food, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Luc JC van Loon of Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

The study has a number of limitations. Besides its small size, it did not look at actual muscle mass changes over time -- but only short-term changes in participants' muscle-fiber proteins after the protein drink. So it is not clear what kinds of gains older or younger adults might see from having their protein post-workout.

Still, the findings do suggest that exercising before consuming protein may help the body put those nutrients to greater muscle-building use, according to van Loon's team.

And for older adults, they write, exercise should "clearly" be considered as a way to boost muscle-protein buildup in response to food -- and, by extension, to support healthy aging.

The study included 24 older men with an average age of 74 and 24 young men with an average age of 21, none of whom regularly exercised.

The researchers randomly assigned the men to one of two groups; in one, the men rested for 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of exercise -- pedaling a stationary bike and performing light strengthening exercises. In the other group, the men spent those additional 30 minutes relaxing.

Afterward, men in both groups downed a drink containing 20 grams of protein, then had their blood levels of various amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) repeatedly measured. The researchers also took a small sample of tissue from each man's thigh muscle, right before the protein drink and 6 hours afterward, to measure changes in the amounts of protein in the muscle.

Overall, van Loon and his colleagues found, muscle protein increased to a greater extent in the exercise group versus the inactive group, and both older and younger men showed similar benefits.

It's well known that muscle mass tends to wane as people age, and some researchers have proposed that one reason may be that in older people, the body's muscle-protein production responds less efficiently to protein from food, and also to exercise.

However, the current findings suggest that this may not be the case.

"Effective dietary approaches are needed to prevent and/or attenuate the age-related loss of muscle mass," van Loon and his colleagues write.

Based on these findings, they conclude, it's possible that having protein after exercise allows for greater use of food-derived protein for muscle building, in young and old alike."

Article reprinted from Yahoo! Health

Vegetarianism all the rage in MMA

Editors note: I felt this article was worth posting due to the fact that I've been a vegan for over 18 years and involved in the fitness industry. I feel that nutrition is more important to human beings than any workout regimen. There is no substitute for an excellent diet and proper nutrition. - Shane Lamers, Phoenix and Scottsdale Personal Trainer

"SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Jon Fitch signed his first contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2005, the former Purdue University wrestling captain could suddenly afford to eat whatever he wanted.

That meant meat. Lots of it.

“I would eat three meals a day with meat, and meat was the main part of every meal,” said Fitch, who is preparing for his biggest fight in years on Feb. 26 in Sydney, Australia against B.J. Penn in UFC 127. “I’d eat two steaks for dinner almost every night.”

Fitch, considered by most either the No. 2 or No. 3 welterweight in the world, grew up in the meat-and-potatoes Midwest in Fort Wayne, Ind. When he went to college, meat became an even bigger dietary staple.

“My mother would make meat and sides, but in college, I was always in a hurry, so cooking meat was quick and easy, and there were a lot less sides,” he said. “I lived off the George Foreman Grill.”

But after college and before signing with the UFC, meat became a luxury. As a small-show fighter living in expensive San Jose, he had to survive on a budget of $800 a month, which didn’t get him very far.

Ramen noodles were in. High-priced animal flesh was out.

But in his training for the Penn fight, Fitch has come full circle. The top welterweight has joined a growing number of MMA stars who have committed to a vegetarian diet.

The list includes the next challenger for Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight title, Jake Shields, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, and two former Ultimate Fighter winners, Nate Diaz and Mac Danzig.

Shields, whose parents are vegetarians, grew up on a meatless diet, never wavered, and is in large part the catalyst for the trend.

He influenced training partner Nick Diaz. Nate Diaz, Nick’s younger brother, followed in Nick’s footsteps. Fitch, based in San Jose, and Shields, who lives nearby in San Francisco, have trained together in the past.

“I’ve been this way all my life,” said Shields, 32, who faces St. Pierre on April 30 in Toronto on a show that has already sold out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre. “I’ve got nothing to compare it to. The only thing is, nobody can train as hard or as long as me and Nick Diaz, so that seems to indicate something.”

Diaz, 27, turned to a vegetarian diet as a teenager. Unlike Shields and Fitch, who live in the upscale Bay Area, Diaz lives in working-class Stockton, Calif. This means his diet require a substantial commitment, as he noted he has to load up on groceries when he goes to train with the likes of Shields in San Francisco, an hour away from his home.

Frequent shopping and constant eating are a necessity in balancing the vegetarian lifestyle and high-level professional fighting, because foods with no preservatives spoil quickly, and maintaining weight and strength are necessary.

“I try to keep my diet all organic,” said Diaz. “It’s healthier. You recover faster. Nobody trains as hard as we do.” With plenty of vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco, Shields eats out several times per week.

Shields noted the only time his diet became difficult was when he was in Strikeforce and bounced back and forth between welterweight and the 185-pound welterweight class. When he competed at the higher weight class, he sometimes had to force himself to eat seven or eight times a day to add the extra weight.

At the top level of MMA, particularly for main-event caliber UFC fighters, a good deal of travel is required, which can be a particular challenge to those with vegetarian needs.

Fitch went to Sydney several weeks ago for a media tour to promote UFC 127, and will leave more than a week in advance of his fight to get acclimated to the substantial time change.
Jake Shields is a lifelong vegetarian. His biggest dietary challenge is finding good eats on the road.

“Eating there won’t be a problem,” Fitch said. “I was there in December and scouted out places for the week of the fight.”

Shields spent last week in Toronto in promotion of his fight. He’s fought all over the world and noted having problems finding good places to eat on fight week in some cities.

Early in his career, Shields fought frequently in Japan, which was a struggle, because so much of the Japanese diet is fish-based, and he didn’t speak the language. Shields said at times he didn’t eat as well as he would have liked in the days leading to a fight, and didn’t feel his best. Even with the challenge, Shields only lost one fight while competing in Japan.

Husband-and-wife team

Fitch’s transformation to vegetarianism came about in large part to the influence of his wife Michele. He noted that Shields, who has won 15 consecutive fights, helped sway his decision.

And he couldn’t be happier with the changes.

“In every kind of testing to see where I’m at, strength, speed, conditioning, I’m either right at or well ahead of the best marks I’ve ever had at this stage of training,” Fitch said. “A few weeks ago, we were concerned I was peaking too fast. I’d kick the [expletive] out of myself at the same stage of training for any of my previous fights.”

Fitch, who turns 33 on Feb. 24, is now about 183 pounds. As a welterweight fighter, his weigh-in weight is 170. Most modern welterweights range from 185 pounds as their regular weight before cutting down, to as much as 210 pounds for somebody like Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. Fitch was on the upper end of that scale for years. But two weeks before the Penn fight, he was about five pounds lighter at the same stage as he would have been for his last few fights.

“The biggest thing is better recuperation from training,” Fitch said. “I don’t have the days where I came in flat. It’s made for the best training camp of my career.”

If anything seems like a negative with Fitch in regard to his change, it’s that he has to constantly eat or he will lose too much weight.

Both Fitch and Shields augment their diets with frequent protein shakes. Fitch has limited his supplementation to plant-based protein of late, and is also using amino acids as a supplement. Shields uses supplements supplied by his sponsor, usually soy- or whey-based, but sometimes milk-based protein.

Neither fighter is vegan. Fitch said during his Penn camp he has been eating fish about once a week, although he went three straight weeks at one point with no animal products. Besides his milk-based protein powder, Shields regularly eats eggs.

“I used to get pressured to eat meat when I was younger by [amateur wrestling] coaches,” said Shields. “But I was successful in sports, so they started leaving me alone.”

Fitch’s transformation was gradual, stemming from when Michele read “Skinny Bitch,” a diet book by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin that advocated a vegan lifestyle and focused on unhealthy aspects of eating meat.

“Before UFC 100, she went on a vegan diet and started feeling better,” said Fitch. “Prior to my fight with Paulo Thiago [during the summer of 2009], I went to a more organic diet. I cut back to eating meat three times a week, limited to an eight-ounce steak or poultry, and started eating more fruits and vegetables. In two weeks, I noticed a big difference in training. I had a much easier weight cut and recovered from it better. So I kept it up.”

Fitch read “Skinny Bastard,” the male counterpart to” Skinny Bitch,” by the same authors, as well as “The China Study,” a research project collaboration among Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, which examined diseases and lifestyles in rural China. The study showed people who ate the most animal-based protein had more chronic illnesses, and people who ate mostly plant-based foods were the healthiest and lived the longest.

Fitch credits his wife for his ability to pull off his dietary experiment because she handles the shopping and food preparation.

“We’re a real team,” he said. “With all the food I have to eat to maintain weight on this diet, she is constantly cooking and preparing things.”

“He eats nonstop,” said Michele Fitch. “Particularly at night. I wake up in the morning and the snack tray is empty.”

Fitch gets home most nights from his evening workout at about 9:30 p.m. and eats dinner at 10. He will eat another light meal before going to bed around midnight.

“After his evening workout, he has a spinach noodle dish with spinach, zucchini, garlic, onions, olive oil and sometimes mushrooms – his Popeye meal,” she said. “All meals contain a variety of fruits.”

The Fitches don’t measure portions, but Michele Fitch said the goal for Jon is a three-to-one ratio between fruits and protein, with the goal of getting 90 grams of protein daily.

“The average person needs 60 grams, but with all the intense training, I have to keep my strength up,” he said.

For Danzig, a matter of principle

Danzig, 31, the Season 6 winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” as a welterweight, even though he normally fights at lightweight, turned vegetarian full-time in 2004.

With his stint on the reality show and public advocacy for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, he’s more vocal about the vegetarian lifestyle than other fighters.

Danzig ponders about peoople with pets who know of the often inhumane conditions animals raised for food are subjected to.

“I don’t understand how anyone can have an animal in their life and know what is going on and contribute to it,” Danzig said. “You don’t need any kind of animal products to be an athlete in this day and age.”

Danzig came upon the vegetarian diet differently from Fitch and the Diaz brothers, who did it for their sport. He cites being on a farm at 13 and seeing a truck taking pigs to slaughter, making eye contact with a pig on the way to its death, and the moment having a profound effect on him.

Danzig worked at an animal sanctuary in Pennsylvania at the age of 20 and met people who felt strongly about not eating meat. He was a vegan for a year, but gave it up when he started training as a full-time fighter, believing he would need animal protein to have enough strength to compete at the top level. But after reading up on the subject, he felt he could go without any animal products and be successful, so he reverted back to veganism.

Fitch raves about the health and performance benefits of his new lifestyle. But he doesn’t consider it a moral matter. He noted after his fight with Penn, he’s planning on eating a steak.

“The thing is, steak tastes great.”"

Article written by Dave Meltzer / Yahoo Sports

Every Sunday: Premier Scottsdale Bootcamps and Phoenix Bootcamp Classes!

Scottsdale Bootcamp and Phoenix (Arcadia) Bootcamp classes are in full effect!

Experience GetFitAZ Scottsdale and Phoenix's Bootcamps and you'll receive an incredible metabolic and intense workout! Our bootcamp classes are for people at all fitness levels. If you desire to improve your health and sense of well being, lose weight, or just to mix up your workout regimen, bootcamps are the perfect for you!

GetFitAZ currently offers Scottsdale Bootcamp and Phoenix Bootcamp classes every Sunday morning. Weekday morning classes being in March! Our schedule is as follows:

9:00 AM in Phoenix (Arcadia): Peak Studio 3734 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ. 85018
11:00 AM in Scottsdale: Edge Fitness 7117 East Mercer Lane Scottsdale, AZ 85254

If you plan to attend, please stop by 5-10 minutes early to fill out a health and waiver sheet. You can reach us at 480-788-8118 or email train@getfitaz.com for more info