Do you see how much you can bench press every time you walk in the gym? If so you’ll eventually notice a decrease in weight/strength closely followed by a few typical aches and pains. As I mentioned, the words “how much” and “bench press” are rarely separated, but the truth is that the one repetition maximum lift (or 1RM) serves no useful purpose in health and fitness training with the aim to gaining weight. Outside of competitive powerlifting (where the most seasoned athletes typically reserve the single repetition maximum for the actual competition) it’s only purpose is to satisfy your ego or other’s curiosity. Don’t give in to peer pressure or your own insecurity. (Now, don’t get me wrong…I’ve been there too.) It’s just that there are much better and safer ways of tracking progress for most individuals. Why don’t people ask how well you perform an exercise, how much control you have, that’s much more important and a greater indicator of mastery.

Did I say the bench press was “bad”? Absolutely not! But it is not a magic bullet and should not serve as a quantifier for self-esteem. Nor should it be used as an overall measurement of strength or fitness. It is just the bench press, one of a hundred exercises that involves the pecs and can help in developing “pushing” strength. And like all of those other exercises, the bench press should be carefully evaluated for use by determining your true goal and your individual anatomical structure…not because of tradition or myth.

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PMS stand for Premenstrual syndrome which is the medical term used to refer to the unpleasant and uncomfortable symptoms a woman feels before menstruation. The PMS symptoms are varied and around 150 separate symptoms have already been identified. The symptoms can be of two types: physical and psychological. Some of the most common physical symptoms are headaches, breast tenderness, bloating, back pain, muscle pain etc. The psychological symptoms include depression, aggression, anxiety, mood swings etc. These PMS symptoms usually appear from up to two weeks before menstruation and disappear upon the onset of menstruation. For some women, these PMS symptoms so severe that they hinder her usual lifestyle. In this case, the disorder is referred to as PMDD.

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The Fat Resistance Diet is a new diet highlighted in a book by that name by Dr. Leo Galland. The diet is based on the idea that people become fat because they are resistant to leptin, a hormone produced by fat. As we accumulate more fat, it produces more leptin, which we are resistant to. We can’t use the high levels of circulating leptin, so it hangs out in our body, causing inflammation and insulin resistance. Not only is it hard for us to lose weight with that profile, but it’s also easy to gain it.

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The Fat Flush Diet is the diet recommended by Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., C.N.S., “The First Lady of Nutrition”. Gittleman’s diet is designed to detoxify your liver, increase your metabolism and decrease water retention.

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What is the Glycemic Index? The number is a ranking figure (like 72 out of 100). It ranks carbohydrates as to how much they cause blood sugar to rise 2-3 hours after ingestion. A food with a high glycemic index shoots your blood sugar up; a food with a low glycemic index doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar.

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Growing your own alfalfa, radish, or mung bean or other vegetable sprouts is easy and it’s a good way to add extra nutrition to your diet all year round.

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We used to think that the best way to treat menopause was with HRT, and we thought that HRT protected us from heart disease and osteoporosis. Well, we were wrong. And we’ve been looking for a better way to treat night sweats and hot flashes ever since.

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Anne Collins’ program is really a member website and support forum. You enroll in the program and you receive 9 different diet plans, lots of instruction, access to the forums and excellent support.

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When you start reading about the healing powers of aloe vera, it sounds like it must be too good to be true. And then you read words like “powerful cathartic” and you truly start to wonder.

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It seems that a lot more people are choosing naturopaths these days, and that people are disillusioned with traditional medical treatments. Many people still rely on their family physician for some things, like stitches and broken bones and sore throats, but will go to a naturopath for routine health care.

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