LOWER BAD CHOLESTEROL WITH OLIVE OIL

Cholesterol! That word can evoke terror like no other, whether we understand it or not we all know we should be scared of it! Cholesterol is the culprit behind the increasing cases of heart disease and sudden death we face in Nigeria today. Fear not my friends; there is a natural way to fight cholesterol and its right under your nose.

We all know olive oil, but what do we really know about it? Olive oil is not some “special” spiritual oil to bind and cast evil spirits (My apologies to GOYA brand which seems to be to go to olive oil for this!)  What olive oil actually does is to bind and cast away the evil of bad cholesterol from your blood. Let’s start at the beginning shall we?

THE BEST WAYS TO BOOST YOUR WORKOUT INTENSITY

Yes I know it seems that every other week I am writing about how to improve your workout and what not. If it’s true then I give no apologies because workout intensity can NEVER be over emphasized. If exercise/working out is the life’s blood of good health and fitness, then intensity is its soul! (Honestly, I am not being dramatic).

We need to work out in order to get the best out of our bodies and be at optimum health and fitness, but in order for the workout to achieve this we must work at maximum intensity. Now what is this intensity I am carping on about today? It really quite simple intensity is a mix of quality, speed, energy, effort and concentration you put into your exercises and you must maintain intensity with each rep, set, exercise and full work out to get the best results. Let me illustrate, there are two guys in the gym let’s call them Peter and Paul. Both are doing the same exercise leg squats with a barbell weighing 50kg, peter completes a set of 12 repetitions in 60 seconds drops the weight strolls around and the gym talking with friends for about 5 minutes. He comes back and repeats the same for another 2 sets and completes his exercise in 13 minutes. Paul on the other hand completes his set in 30 seconds rests for about 1 minute and goes straight to his other sets and completes the workout in 5 minutes. Who do you think exercised with the greater intensity and will get better results? I will give you a hint it isn’t peter!

COFFEE: IS IT GOOD OR BAD FOR YOU? SOME TRUTHS!

Coffee, there has never been a more ubiquitous, loved, hated and myth provoking natural beverage in the history of mankind. We have all heard the stories, in one ear they are telling you all the wonderful things about coffee; it’s an antioxidant, it will help you lose weight, and boost your exercise performance. Into the next ear they are whispering of caffeine addiction, high blood pressure and cancer!

6 NATURAL FAT BURNERS YOU CAN DEPEND ON !

In the world of exercise and weight loss fat burners can be a very controversial topic. There are a million and one products out there that all promise amazing and fantastic weight loss results with minimum physical effort from you. The bad news: a vast majority of them do not work, the ones that do seem to work are basically diuretics i.e. you take them and lose weight but its all water weight not real fat loss and you gain it back as soon as you stop taking them!

The best route to fat loss as always is an exercise/ weight training routine and a controlled diet. However there are some tried and trusted fat burners that have existed in nature for years. They are backed up by years of science and research and will help you lose fat (not weight!) in the quickest possible time. These fat burners can be found as stand alone supplements or as an ingredient in a commercial fat burner, so please look out for them before you buy any fat burner ever again. They are easily available in many pharmacies and health shops and even your local market! (Honestly!).  So please do look up these fat burners and add them to your supplement routine and I promise you better fat burning results.

LADIES: 10 MORE WAYS TO LOSE YOUR LOVE HANDLES

Love handles, does anyone really love them? They are so stubborn, annoying and discouraging that we just want to hide them under baggy clothes and hope the world doesn’t notice.  However there is a silver lining. At any given time the average man’s body contains about 20kg of fat, it’s usually in flux either increasing or decreasing. Spend more time losing it than gaining it and you will gradually bury those love handles forever. Does it sound too good to be true?  It’s not, believe me I’ve been there and done it and I know how difficult it can be to win the battle of the bulge. The good news is that you don’t have to fight alone. This week I am giving you ten lifestyle and exercise tips on how to banish that unsightly jelly on your waist, if you implement them I guarantee that you will be on the road to getting rid of the belly flab forever! Guys don’t let the title deceive you; these tips are not just for the ladies, so don’t pass this over to your wife and open another can of star! These tips will help you regardless of your sex. So what are you waiting for? Let’s go!

9 STUNNING CELEBRITY BODY TRANSFORMATIONS FOR THE GUYS!

Celebrities! We love to hate them, and with good reason too! They are famous, well paid, pampered and often good looking. These people have the world at their feet and everything going for them. Now you have one more reason to hate them; they are often in great shape. However before you turn totally green with envy, there is something about these guys on display today. They have all worked incredibly hard to get the great physiques they have built today. If money and wishes could buy you a six pack, I would have a dozen by now! Since that isn’t going to happen you will have to build the body of your dreams the old fashioned way, with plenty of sweat and tears!

To help you along the way I have outlined these fit elite; 9 celebs all guys who take fitness and training to the next level. If you can study their methods and madness and apply it to your workout the sky is the limit. Now before you shrug and say “I don’t work out” still check out their stories, they just might inspire you to get off your lazy ass and find that lost mojo! I would have loved to do a Naija fittest celebrity dozen, but info is so scarce and our celebs so lazy that it will have to wait for another day.  Hope you enjoy this and happy reading this and do have a lovely day!

1.       CHRISTIAN BALE

What he did:

Star of Batman and other great movies, he brings intensity to all his roles. After dropping over 25kg for his role in the machinist (mostly through a diet of apples and coffee!),   Bale had to bulk up from 60kg to 100kg for his role in Batman. Incredibly he became too muscular for the role and had to drop 10kg to fit into the bat suit! He achieved this massive gain in just 5 months by feeding on mostly protein; chicken and turkey and by eating every 3 hours throughout day! His workout regime included squats, bench press and shoulder presses. He also included squat jumps for explosive power. On his motivation Bale say’s “you just can’t pull it off until you become a beast in the suit”.

LOST YOUR MOJO IN BED? THEN YOU NEED TO RAISE YOUR TESTOSTERONE LEVELS!

I was inspired to write this piece by a friend of mine, let’s call him LD. LD is having serious issues rocking his marriage. To put it bluntly, he has lost interest in sex and now makes up excuses to dodge his wife! Talk about reversed roles! It has gotten so bad that he came to me for help, now I am not the world’s greatest authority but I love a good challenge and I got to work. Let’s just say, things are now looking up in his life (pun intended!) I got so tripped by this I decided to write about this issue that is fast spreading amongst guys but no one really wants to talk about. Hope you find it educative, and if you don’t need the advice, I am willing to bet you do know someone who needs it. So pass it on!

OMEGA 3 FISH OIL: IT WILL PROLONG YOUR LIFE !

Recently the noise makers in the health industry have been bombarding us with all this information about good fat versus bad fat, sometimes it just gets so confusing that you don’t know what is what. Today they are harping about fat being the enemy, the next they tout the health benefits of consuming fat in your diet.

Until a few months ago I was as confused as the next guy. So I did some digging around and I discovered the wonderful health benefits of omega 3 fatty acids which is most popularly found as omega 3 fish oil. I know you are wondering if fish oil is all it’s cracked up to be and the short of it is yes! If you are not getting your daily dose of omega 3 by eating oily sea fish e.g. mackerel (Titus to you in Naija!) then you had better start now and if you can’t stand the taste of fish, start taking supplements.

FOODS THAT RAISE BAD CHOLESTEROL

Sequel to my last post on cholesterol, i have decided to write on the foods that raise your levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL).  With this list you will be able to make informed choices about what foods to eat and foods you should avoid. Let this list be a rough guide to your nutrition when it comes to cholesterol control. It is by no means exhaustive and if you know any foods I have omitted, I would be grateful for the feedback.

Thanks, and do have a wonderful day.

1.       Egg Yolk:

The yolk of egg has the most cholesterol of any food with 1234mg per 100gram serving or 411% of the recommended daily value. A single egg yolk will provide 210mg (70%) of daily value of cholesterol, while a whole egg provides slightly more with 212mg (71%). Thus all the cholesterol in egg is in the yolk. Hence my advice to you is to avoid egg yolk as much as possible.

MORE AWESOME BODY TRANSFORMATIONS!

Today i am not going to write much, i want these awesome body transformations from everyday people to speak for themselves. I know its tough finding motivation to work out, but if these people could so can you! So enjoy these pictures and i hope they motivate you to get active and healthy today. All pictures are courtesy of bodybuilding.com.

Do have a wonderful day.

10 Things you probably don’t know about Sylvester Stallone

We here at corefitness cant get enough of the sly one. His life should be made into a movie! He rose from poverty and ill health to become one of the biggest stars of the 20th century and also one of the truly fit celebrities of our time. In previous posts we have looked at how he became a health and fitness icon as well as one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. Today i want to round off  on a light note with this fun trivia on Stallone. How many of this facts did you know before today?  Give us a shout  by subscribing to our weekly post.

Do have a lovely day!

1.       HE WAS BORN WITH THAT SNEER ON HIS FACE:

 Sly was born on the 6^th of July 1946 with his trade mark sneer; it was caused by an inexperienced medical intern who helped deliver him. Rough use of medical forceps cut a facial never in baby Sylvester causing the permanent droopy look and sneer. Didn’t seem to affect his career though! 

2.       HE WAS BULLIED AT SCHOOL:

Young Sylvester was a short skinny kid who got bullied frequently at school and as a result got obsessed with getting big and strong like Steve reeves(pictured below)

LADIES! 8 WAYS TO GET RID OF YOUR LOVE HANDLES

First off I have to apologize in advance to anybody who wants to get in shape in time for Valentine’s Day. These tips are coming way too late to be of help on February 14^th. You are just going to rely on your charm, wit and internal beauty to be in shape for your loved ones. However don’t fret we still have over 300 days for you to be in your best shape and feel like the star you are in 2014.

Today I am giving you 8 special exercises that you can incorporate in your daily workout to help you get rid of the ironically named love handles. If you don’t know what love handles are then we both have a long way to go. For those of you still wondering, Love handles are those rolls of fat on the waist. Ubiquitous, unsightly and annoying they ruin the fit of your clothes and make you look unhealthy. If you want to banish your love handles, then I recommend these exercises for you.

These exercises are not just for the ladies alone but for the guys also because love handles do not discriminate against either sex! So in the spirit of love and sharing I present my Valentine’s Day gift to you all.

For inspirational purposes I am also attaching some awesome transformational pictures of everyday people who decided to take charge of their bodies and get rid of their love handles. Hope they motivate you to achieve your true potential.

Do have a lovely day!

BICYCLE CRUNCH:

REMEMBERING BIG PUN, AND HOW TO AVOID HIS FATE!

                               

He is virtually forgotten now; one would have thought that would be impossible given his massive girth! Today marks the 14^th anniversary of the death of Christopher lee Rios, better known as Big pun. He died on February 7^th 2000 of a massive heart attack at the peak of a successful but ultimately short career that only showed the beginnings of what would have been a successful career. In case you are wondering what big pun has got to do with a fitness and health blog, don’t worry his is a cautionary tale of how you could lose that which we should cherish above all: good health and life itself.

Dwayne " The Rock " Johnson Workout video 2013

THE STALLONE SYSTEM: GAIN WEIGHT, WITHOUT GETTING FAT!

This piece was inspired by an old secondary school friend of mine, let’s call him KC. Now must of us guys in our thirties are currently engaged in a battle with our waistline and generally we are losing it! Most guys are struggling to lose weight, trim down and stay in shape. Now KC’s problem is the exact opposite because he struggles to maintain a healthy weight and be fit and his asked me for advice. Now I love a good challenge so I delved into the archives and came up with this wonderful training advice from Sylvester Stallone.

Now we all agree that sly is the epitome of fitness and dedication to one’s objectives and he has inspired and continues to inspire millions of guys (and ladies) to be in their shape no matter their age. Sly is 66 now but, I am willing to bet he is in far better physical condition than most of us in our thirties! (check out the previous video post of old man sly still doing his thing!!)Sly wasn’t always so ripped and muscular as you can see. He too was underweight as a young man and had to overcome physical and mental barriers to get to where he is today, both physically and professionally.

SYLVESTER STALLONE TRAINING ABS ROCKY 4 STYLE AT 65

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COKE ZERO? DRINK WITH CAUTION!

It’s supposed to be the perfect carbonated soft drink. You get all the taste and flavour of drinking coke and none of the sugar associated with regular coke. Great deal right? The answer to that is not so fast, there are certain unanswered issues when dealing with coke zero and it revolves around a major ingredient: 

aspartame.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is used as a sugar substitute in coke zero, it is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and contains almost zero calories. Now, you might ask me what’s all the fuss about a coke zero and the answer is many people are now drinking coke zero to avoid sugar consumption in regular soft drinks and might not know what they getting themselves into.

A NEW YEAR, SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!

Let me start with apologies. The last time I signed in was in later October 2013 and for that I owe you all a sincere apology. Even with the best of intentions life’s challenges can make you lose track, and I have to admit I have been off track for the past three months.

I want to promise you that in this New Year I will strive to be totally focused and committed. I promise a better, more interesting and interactive blog. I will not wander off! Guys forgive me. I’m back!