Exercise has a place in the lives of everyone. With some adequate research and experimentation you can find the right exercise program for you. I was fortunate enough to find my exercise of choice as a teenager and excelled in martial arts and in weight lifting. It changed my life, even now. I believe that it’s vitally important to find an exercise that works for you as early in your life as possible.

Have you discovered your favorite activity yet? In many ways, it doesn’t matter what fitness activity you like, it’s more important that you work hard to build muscle mass, improve your fitness level while having fun at the same time. If you start life sitting on the couch all the time, your body won’t get the activity it needs to help you grow and mature into a healthy adult. If you are still looking for some kind of exercise regime, consider the electric muscle stimulator.

Perhaps you’ve seen an electric muscle stimulator before. Maybe you’ve seen one on television. In fact, there’s a scene in the movie “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” in which the main character, Bruce Lee, has an electric muscle stimulator strapped to his chest. In the movie, he comments that the stimulator felt like the equivalent of doing two hundred push-ups. My own experience with the electric muscle stimulator is limited to watching the move but I’ve heard many good things about them.

I’ve been told that such devices actually do work. The stimulator sends a small electrical shock through the skin to the muscle tissue and causes a muscle contraction. The contraction of the muscle causes the muscle to be more toned, just like when an individual does real exercises. The muscle contraction is mild, however, and I can’t believe that using such a device does the same thing as lifting weights or using a weight machine.

The ideal candidate for an electric muscle stimulator would be someone who has been injured and can’t exercise by any other means. Are you one of those types of people? Think about the possibility of strapping one of those machines on and letting the machine tone your muscles while you’re healing from an injury. You wouldn’t get the cardiovascular fitness component but it may keep your muscles toned until you recover.

If you’re interested in this type of exercise machine, do a search for one on the Internet so you can compare prices and styles. It’s possible you’ll find one in your price range and, even if you’re capable of doing muscle toning exercises, it may not be a bad idea to use one of these machines instead, at least for part of the time.

The Imposter Syndrome: How to Fake Until You Make It

What do Lindsay Lohan, Jim Belushi, Brittney Spears and Robert Downey, Jr. have in common? The Imposter Syndrome.

by

John Graden

Chapter 1

I once saw Paul Newman in a TV interview say that he always had the fear that one day someone would push through the crowd of his admirers, grab him by the arm, and say, “It’s over. It was all a mistake. You are coming back to paint houses . . .”

I understood exactly what he meant. He was describing the underlying fear that your good fortune is going to end and/or that someone is going to discover that you are a fraud.

Psychologists call this “The Imposter Syndrome.” (aka The Impostor Phenomenon)

I am not a psychologist nor do I play one in this book. This book is about my obstacles and personal experiences and the strategies I’ve used and developed to overcome the self-doubt I lived with for many years. I thought that once I built a successful business and was receiving international acclaim for my work in the martial arts, the self-doubt would evaporate. Instead, my self-doubt returned with a new name, The Imposter Syndrome.

The Imposter Syndrome is the feeling of being a fake. Regardless of what is going on around you, there is a nagging feeling people will find out that you are not as smart, good, talented, successful, or anything else positive, as they think you are.

This is a feeling that you somehow don’t deserve your success. You feel as though you are a fake. It’s as though you aren’t the person you appear to be to the rest of the world.

The dread that you are to be found out or exposed as being inadequate is always present. The resultant undercurrent of self-doubt makes it hard to strive for excellence because the more you draw attention to yourself; the more vulnerable you are to being unmasked.

Studies in the mid-1980s show that as much as 70% of successful people suffered from the Impostor Syndrome in varying degrees. It’s difficult to know exactly how many people have achieved less or never even tried to succeed due to the Impostor Syndrome.

You could call The Imposter Syndrome “Advanced Self-Doubt.” The imposter syndrome is prevalent in successful, high-achieving people. Most other people aren’t terribly concerned about being exposed because they live low-risk lives. High-achievers risk on many different levels, and when that risk pays off and the self-image doesn’t match the rewards of the achievement, the imposter syndrome takes root.

We have often observed this in entertainers who work to get to the top and then, once they are there, destroy themselves with drugs and alcohol. The nature of the entertainment business is up and down and people who suffer from the Impostor Syndrome often feel as though the next project will the one that exposes them.

For me, a key realization regarding self-doubt and then later the impostor syndrome was that every successful person really does “fake it until they make it.” No one has all of the answers right out of the gate. But you have to get in the gate to get into the race.

One of my favorite programs is a reality show from the UK called Faking It. This show takes someone from one field or background and gives him or her thirty days to learn a new skill and convince experts in that field that they are legitimate.

For instance, they once gave a very conservative young woman, classically trained, a month to learn how to be lead singer for a hard rock band. A minister was given the same time to become a used-car salesman, and a chess champion was given the task of passing himself off as the coach of a rugby team, though he had never played the game or even enjoyed sports at all.

Regardless of the success of the participants in that show, you can understand why they would have self-doubts about their place and position. They fear they will be discovered as a fraud. Paul Newman and I had that same feeling but in real life instead of a “reality show.” Regardless of our individual levels of success, lingering self-doubt cast a gray cloud on our clear blue futures.

Faking It instantly recreated the symptoms of the Impostor Syndrome.

1. A guilty feeling you are getting away with something.

2. A feeling you’re going to be exposed as an intellectual fraud or fake at some point.

3. Inability to take credit for your success or to even say, “Thank You” to praise.

Self-doubt has affected my thought patterns since I was a kid. Naturally, those thought patterns resulted in patterns of behavior, both good and bad, that defined my life. This book is about how I overcame extreme self-doubt and plenty of negative programming.

As you read keep in mind that all the strategies I share with you have worked for me. I’m sure they will work for you. Essentially, this book will help you to “train your brain.” That sounds simplistic, but most of us were never taught how to think. Yet what is more important? To be sure, I’m still learning and making mistakes, but I’ve come a long way, and I’m sure I can help you accelerate your growth.

I know a lot has been written about self-confidence. Here is my perspective on self-confidence and self-doubt. Imagine self-confidence as a positive number. The more confidence you have the higher the number. Imagine self-doubt as a negative number. The more you have, the further away you are from zero.

Here’s the good news. As your competence grows in any area, you move from the negative numbers of doubt into the positive numbers of confidence. Here’s the reality. Soon after high school or college most people stop trying to “improve their numbers.” That could easily have happened to me, but I don’t want it to happen to you.

To say that I was a quiet kid would be understating it to the extreme. I can recall going days without speaking to other kids at school. I felt if I said nothing, I couldn’t be teased for saying something stupid. Bless their hearts, my parents loved me very much and I them, but in our family the primary training method was to scream when something went wrong. If I did something wrong, it was Go directly to Scream; Do not pass Go; Do not ask questions first. After a while, you just learn to be quiet.

On the positive side, the fear that I might be judged as inadequate drove me to study, research, and develop a true hunger for information and learning. As I entered any new field of endeavor I invested time and money in learning how the best of the best made a success of it, and then I modeled their key behaviors and strategies.

There is no doubt that martial arts played a pivotal role in my gaining the confidence to give myself a chance. From my first karate class on February 12, 1974, I knew I had found my calling. In that first class at age 13, I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I’m still at it. I began teaching private lessons for $7 per hour in 1976. That was great for a 16-year-old at the time. I was hired on as a staff instructor for $5 per class in 1978 after earning my black belt.

As my competence in the martial arts improved, my confidence in many areas of life improved. I knew if I could learn to jump over two people and break three boards with a flying sidekick, certainly I could learn to drive a car. Competence led to confidence.

In time, I was on my own, teaching around the area at various community centers and halls. I even taught an accredited college course for a few years, which was ironic because I never graduated high school. I used to joke that I dropped out of high school so I could teach college.

I didn’t have to work many hours, and I had Friday through Sunday off. As a young man, I didn’t have many needs nor did anyone expect me to be well off. I could keep expenses low. So I always had a little cash in my pocket. Being a champion karate instructor in my early 20s brought with it all kinds of social benefits, from meeting girls to being treated like a local celebrity.

However, my friends at the time were following a more traditional path. They were going to college and/or working at jobs they hated. They always seemed broke, even though they put in horrendous hours to make any money. They were miserable at their jobs, but I loved mine. They were broke, but I always had some cash to play with. They would tease me about getting a real job, while envying my position.

Eventually, the contrast started to get to me. I began to feel guilty about this great life I was leading. I started to doubt that I deserved it. One weekend, I was scheduled to fight in a tournament in Gainesville and came up a day early to have lunch with a former girlfriend.

Over a nice outdoor meal, I described to her my situation and my growing feelings of self-doubt and guilt.

“I work maybe three hours a day, Monday through Thursday. I make good enough money to get by. On the other hand, my friends are all working forty or more hours and struggling. How can that be?”

She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “John, I know you. You wouldn’t have it any other way.”

There are moments in life that I call emotional thresholds. Once you break through them, you begin to destroy all self-doubt related to that area of your life. This was one of those moments for me. It was as though I had permission to design the life that I wanted, rather than follow the path of a fresh rat in the race. While it didn’t entirely erase my self-doubt, it gave me a surge of momentum in the right direction. That sense of getting permission to live life on my terms was a huge moment for me, so let me share this with you right now. You, like me, have permission to create the life you want.

As a direct result of my crashing through that emotional threshold on that day at lunch with my friend, I have had a rewarding and lucrative career in the martial arts. I say this because the martial arts industry does not produce a lot of high-income earners. Martial arts schools are usually mom-and-pop labors of love.

One of my other mentors was an acclaimed plastic surgeon. He told me once that he was a millionaire by the age of 37. I made a goal to do the same. I beat him by six months.

A key to my transformation from self-doubt to confidence was an understanding of the power of programming and self-image.

My friends and I, for the most part, all came from similar financial situations. Most of our families were lower middle class. “We can’t afford that” was a mantra in my home. None of my friends’ parents owned their own business.

Wealth-building and entrepreneurship were like words from a foreign language to these families. Not necessarily because the parents were against it, but because they just didn’t know anything about designing a rewarding professional life.

Though we were programmed to follow a traditional path of doing well in school in order to get a good job working for someone else, the fact is that 74 percent of millionaires are self-employed. You rarely build wealth working for someone else. I heard a great line somewhere. A small business owner puts his hand on his employee’s shoulder and points to a big house on a hill and says, “You see that big beautiful home? If you work really hard, I can have that one day.”

I had two big problems with the traditional path. One, I hate getting up to an alarm clock. Today the only time I use an alarm clock is if I have to catch a plane. Second, I also hated the idea that one third of my life would be spent doing something I didn’t like. That didn’t make any sense to me. Ever since I was a little boy reading biographies of my sports heroes, I wanted to be either an athlete or a teacher. The martial arts provided me with the perfect platform to combine those two passions. Every day I work at something I love.

My next emotional threshold came when I began teaching. While I knew nothing about business at that time, I did know that I wanted to be the best teacher in the area.

A good friend of my instructor Walt Bone was Mike Anderson, an eccentric genius. Mike used to tell me all the time, “John, you’re a great teacher. You should open a school and make a lot of money.” As flattered as I was, I knew nothing about making money. I was sure I would embarrass myself trying.

Then in 1984 Mike called to tell me that Joe Lewis was in town and he wanted me to meet him. Who was Joe Lewis? If you are a golfer, it would be like hearing Jack Nicholas is in town.

As a teen, my heroes were Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Lewis. When my friends and I would play fight, one of us would be Bruce Lee and the other a snarling Joe Lewis. Lewis and Chuck Norris were the biggest names in sport karate.

Mike wanted me to promote a Joe Lewis seminar, which I did. After the seminar, which was a success by everyone’s standards, I handed Joe $2,000 in cash and then told him he talks too much in his classes. (Sometimes I feel like I have “truth Tourette’s.”) The room froze. He looked at me and said, “No one has ever critiqued my teaching before . . .” I’m not sure if that meant “Thanks for the feedback” or “Who the heck are you . . .?”

The next week I asked to spar with him. He told me point blank, “I don’t do that light contact stuff. I fight full contact.” I told him I trusted him not to hurt me and he didn’t. We trained hard and often for years following. The pinnacle for me was when the top martial arts magazine interviewed him and asked who would carry his torch. He named my brother and me.

Joe would meet me to spar wherever I was teaching that night. One night it would be a basketball court, the next afternoon a college gym or a boxing club. At the same time, I was developing a strong following of students, mostly my college class students who became “karate addicts.” They took my two-hour college class and then followed me to wherever I was teaching to take more classes.

Finally, Joe called me on the phone.

“John, you’ve got to give your students a home,” he said. “A place they can take pride in and call their own. If they go off to college, they can look forward to coming home to their school.”

That was my next “emotional threshold.” Despite my lack of business savvy, I understood him exactly. I literally lived in my instructors’ karate school at times. Most of the time I stayed all night to train, but sometimes I stayed there to escape my home life. I had a strong emotional connection to the martial arts school as a refuge.

The next day I started looking for a location for my school.

My goal for this book is to use my story to help you understand on a deep level that self-doubt is common even among successful people. We all have self-doubt. What is important is how we handle it. What I’m about to share with you is what I have done to break out of the prison of self-doubt. I realized that self-doubt is self-imposed and self-defeating, but it’s as common as a few extra pounds in the waistline. I’m going to help you lose them.

A blog comment I read recently asked,

“How is it that if two people with the same knowledge do the same things, one can become successful and the other not?”

First of all people may have access to and be exposed to the same information but they may process that information differently. There may be areas of the information that they don’t feel congruent with, that they may question or doubt. Second it can look as though on the surface that someone two people are doing the same thing but a small, almost imperceptible difference in the execution of a task can cause a big change in the results. In addition, depending upon whether the difference has a positive or negative effect can be the difference between success and failure.

Everything you produce has your energy signature associated. So if you don’t believe that something will be a success, if you are not in harmony with your business idea then that will be reflected in everything you do and people will sense this and be directed away from doing business with you. For this reason two people may seem to be doing the same actions but can achieve results which are poles apart.

There can also be a lack of integrity between the way a person does business and how they conduct their lives. Can you imagine a salesperson who sells supplements but does not take any? Or a fitness instructor who does not take care of their own health and fitness? Such individuals are living authentically and this will be reflected in the results they achieve.

Discover who you have to be in order to achieve the results you desire and be that person. Then, follow this by doing what it takes to achieve your goals. Be the living advertisement for what you wish to represent and you will attract success.

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created – created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.”

Deborah James

It is not just what we do or the choices we make that determine our success or lack thereof. Our reality is created first in the mind through our thinking. It is this that actually changes the options, or paths open to us, and so changes our destination and our results.

Imagine planting seeds in two boxes of soil. The soil in both boxes looks exactly the same and you treat give both boxes the same amount of water, fertiliser and sunlight. In one box the seeds germinate quickly and grow well and, before too long, bear luscious fruit. In the other box many of the seeds fail to germinate at all. Of those that do germinate many are short-lived. The others grow in a spindly fashion and any fruit that eventually materialises is small in size and malformed.

What could cause such diverse results? The answer is the condition of the soil. The soil of the latter box was contaminated. It was a miracle that anything grew at all. Now there are ways to treat the soil to try to clean it up so that it becomes fertile again but the best solution would be to empty that box and replace it with soil that you definitely know is fertile and uncontaminated.

A martial artist once asked Bruce Lee to train him. After seeing what this martial artist could do Bruce Lee showed him a glass filled with coke and one filled with clear water. He told the young man that he could not teach him what he knew, the clear water, until he emptied his mind of the dark liquid. We have a similar situation here.

The box containing the contaminated soil can be likened to a mind full of negative and limiting beliefs, a mind that has received negative conditioning. The problem is that most people are not aware of their conditioning and how it is affecting their results. Often it takes a crisis in their lives to heighten their awareness and make them realise that they have to make some fundamental changes to their beliefs and to their thinking if they want to cross that fine line and achieve success rather than failure.

So if you are sabotaging your success examine your core beliefs. As the old adage goes,

“You cannot build a strong house on a weak foundation.”

Most doctors and nearly all people get this wrong. It is not your heart or your brain. Too many people are overwhelmed with too much hoopla about anti-aging, and forget that lung power, what the late Bruce Lee called the “Breath Power” can impact your life longevity.

This is a really shocker – unless you act early, your lungs will shrink as you age. In fact, your lung cells die off faster than you can replace them. Research indicates that you will lose 45% of your lung at age of 70.

That is bad news for your strength, stamina, and immunity system. The smaller your lung is the greater chance from dying of every possible cause. Therefore, if you would like to live almost forever, you should have strong lung.

1. A strong lung gives an extra boost to your stamina. This is because your every day activities call for full tank of oxygen in your lung. Oxygen will burn of calories, which gives you more energy.

2. A super lung combats infection and keeps you from getting sick.

3. A lung with immense capacity of oxygen gets rid of fatigue.

4. A rich oxygen filled lung gives your blood better capacity to convey more nutrients to all part of your body.

5. A strong lung brings forth the power to quicker recovery from sickness and injury.

The European Society of Cardiology reported this in 1988 the decline from lung volume greatly increases the risk of heart disease by 200%.

According to Copenhagen City Heart Study in Denmark, a loss of lung volume raises the risk of first-time stroke by over 30% and the risk of fatal stroke shoots over 200%.

Here is the list of exercises that makes your lung strong:

1. Chi Gong (Nie Gong)

2. Swimming

3. Tai Chi

4. Yoga

These exercises arouse the cells in your heart and lung is a great workout. They also help to improve endurance, muscle strength, and joint posture.

These exercises do not exert great impact on the body and are considered as injury-free exercises. You also get the benefit of resistance training. These exercises do not put the strain on connecter tissues that running, aerobics and some weight-training workouts do.

The intensiveness of breathing in these exercises also expands the capacity of lung. The late Martial Arts masters, Bruce Lee called this the “Breath Power”, the ability to control breathing pattern, which improves strength, stamina and sense of well being.

Such power breathing supplies the body with oxygen for the correct and effective performance of every cell. It allows the body to metabolize nutrient efficiently. It gets rid of all the harmful gaseous by products of metabolism, like carbon dioxide.

Power breathing soothes the nervous system, improves concentration, and raises the ability to deal with difficult situations without suffering from stress. It conditions the diaphragm, rib and abdominal muscles to improve core strength and stability.

———————————————-

Ever since I was a little boy reading biographies of my sports heroes I wanted to either be a successful athlete or a teacher. The martial arts provided me with the perfect platform to combine those two passions.

However, in time the disparity between my life and my friends’ lives continued to grow especially when I started to really focus on creating wealth and success. Like a pot full of crabs in boiling water, if one tries to crawl out, the others will pull him back in. I had to selectively distance myself from my friends at certain times in order to focus on my future. Otherwise, they were going to pull me back into the pot.

While I knew nothing about business when I began teaching, I did know that I wanted to be the most successful teacher in the area.

A good friend of my martial arts instructor Walt Bone was Mike Anderson. Mike is an eccentric genius. Mike used to tell me all the time, “John, you’re a great teacher. You should open a school and make a lot of money.” As flattered as I was, my self-doubt was in full force.  I knew nothing about making money. I was sure I would embarrass myself trying.

Then, in 1984, Mike called to tell me that Joe Lewis was in town and he wanted me to meet him. To help you understand who Joe Lewis was, if you are a golfer, this would be like hearing Jack Nicholas is in town. Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris were the biggest names in sport karate.

As a teen, Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali and Joe Lewis were my heroes. When my friends and I would play fight.  One of us would be Bruce Lee and the other, a snarling Joe Lewis.

Mike wanted me to promote a Joe Lewis seminar, which I did. After the seminar, which was a success by everyone’s standards, I handed Joe $2,000 in cash and then told him he talks too much in his classes. (Sometimes I feel like have “truth turrets.”) The room froze. He looked at me and said, “No one has ever critiqued my teaching before…” I’m not sure if that meant, “thanks for the feedback” or “who the heck are you?” The next week I asked to spar with him. He again, stopped and told me point blank, “I don’t do that light contact stuff. I fight full contact.” I told him I trusted him not to hurt me and he didn’t. We trained hard and often for years following. The pinnacle for me was when he was interviewed by the top martial arts magazine and asked who was going to carry his torch and he named my brother and me.

Joe would meet me to spar wherever I was teaching that night. One night it would be a basketball court the next afternoon a college gym or a boxing club. At the same time, I was developing a strong following of students. Theses were mostly my college class students who became “karate addicts.” They would take my two-hour college class and then follow me to wherever I was teaching to take more classes.

Finally, Joe called me on the phone and told me, “John, you’ve got to give your students a home. A place they can take pride in and call their own. If they go off to college, they can look forward to coming home to their school.” That was my next “emotional threshold.” Despite my lack of business savvy, I understood exactly what he was saying. I literally lived in my instructors’ karate school at times. Most of the time I stayed all night to train, but sometimes I stayed there to escape from my home life. I had a strong emotional connection to the martial arts school as a refuge. The next day I started looking for a location for my school.

My goal is to use my story to help you understand, on a deep level, how self-doubt, just like you and I have it, is common even among successful people. It’s not important whether you have self-doubt, because we all do. What is important is how you handle it. What I’m about to share with you is what I have done to break out of the prison of self-doubt. I realized that self-doubt is self-imposed and self-defeating but it’s as common as a few extra pounds in the waistline. You can lose them.

All of the successful traders that I have known have had one thing in common. They are supremely confident in their ability as a trader.
 
However, if you are not yet a successful trader, how can you gain confidence? The answer is that you need to believe with all of your being that you are the successful person you intend to be.

When I first began trading on the exchange floor, eons ago, I looked at the other traders and thought that I was at least as smart as a lot of the traders who were very successful. Yet, they were successful and I was not. What was the difference? The difference was that they believed in their abilities as successful traders as proven to them by their long term success.
 
I had no such history of success, but I had read as much as I could by Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino and others and I believed, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, that:

 ”We become what we think about all day long”.

 To control my thoughts and establish a belief system that included my being a successful trader. I wrote down three affirmative statements on a 3″x5″ card, put the card in my shirt pocket and read it to myself several times a day. Recently, I found one of the first cards I used 30 years ago when I cleaned out a drawer at home. I remember reading the words hundreds of times. My card said:

I am the best broker in the pit. I make $500 a day I deal from a pedestal of calmness. 

Now, you may ask, was I the best broker in the pit? The answer is no.  
Did I make $500 a day when I was telling myself that I did? No again.  
Did I deal from a pedestal of calmness? Not exactly.
 
What I did do, was progress in the direction of these goals.  I repeated these lines over and over until I believed them. In the end, I had the confidence of someone who believed himself to be a success. Programming myself to be confident in my trading prior to actually achieving that success was crucial to growing from an also-ran trader to someone able to earn a living trading.
 
When you write out your own affirmations be sure that you word your affirmation as a statement of fact. You are not tentatively asking for something. You are making a declaration of what you want to become as a clearly-stated reality.
 
If you want to be a success at trading, or any other endeavor, first you need to convince yourself that you are indeed a success. Then, you need to work to make that goal a reality.
 
In the words of Bruce Lee (yes, that Bruce Lee), 

“as you think, so shall you become”.

Wishing you success in your trading, Jeff

Jeff Quinto is a 37 year veteran futures trader and world-class trading coach. Jeff coaches traders from around the world in his Electronic Trader Mentoring Program and his new Upgrading Your Trading Online Course.

The key to life is adaptability. Bruce Lee told that to his students, and somebody probably told that to Bruce Lee. I have long thought that rolling with the punches was always better than taking them straight on. Muhammad Ali was a pro at rolling with the punches, sadly when he was not in fight shape and as he got older, he could not roll with those punches as efficiently. Result : he got pummeled and now suffers from Pugilistic Parkinson’s. In one round in Ali’s penultimate fight, Champion Larry Holmes hit the previous champion 198 times! How long would it take you to lose count? It’s all about Maintenance Workout

So the concept is to maintain your fitness and maintain your adaptability through maintenance workout. Adaptability means to know when to go on. Certain jobs, sports, and activities are so-called “young man’s games” or “young lady’s games.” The target of most elucidated folks whose jobs rely on the functionality of their bodies-contractors, sportsmen, manual workers, and so on. – is to move into management or into any role outside the heavy wear and tear on the body asked by the first task. I have seen many young secretaries, contractors, and weekend tennis players and golfers all wearing the same wrist brace. If these injured folks are still actively collaborating in the same activity that caused the first problem, they may move beyond recovery. When you compound an injury, you may do permanent damage.

The maintenance workout philosophy is to live the way you need to live in order to function optimally. Do you need to service your car, your bike, and most kinds of motors? Does your dog need to be walked? Do you need to take out the trash and mop the floors in your home? All this is an element of maintenance workout. All these practices allow the concerned parties and objects to stay maintained so they can function. So too should you do the same to the best single motor you may ever ride to the grocery store-the human body. Staying fit is much simpler than getting fit. If you don’t think so, jump to another web site that sells transformational maintenance workout, videos, diets, and cures. Buy those products and stick them in the garage next to the still bike that serves as a rack for your winter garments. I have transformational DVDs coming out too. But I do not would like you to use them except as a final resort. Change comes from inside. You already know eating less and walking more means a move towards better fitness and by maintenance workout it can be maximised. So just do it. Then create the habit that keeps you fit. That isn’t truly a goal, it is a daily practice. If you’re looking for more information about maintenance workouts, you can drop by in this related maintenance workout site.
.

Ever since the Bruce Lee movies of the ‘70s, martial arts have enjoyed an immense rise in popularity. Even before then, the martial sciences were considered a useful tool in self defense. However, as time changes, so does combat. Martial arts have to meet this demand.

 

To say that the ‘50s and ‘60s were all Ward and June Cleaver is deceptive. Gang violence was prevalent then. However, unless you encountered the Mafia, you didn’t usually have to worry about having a gun pointed at you, much less the kinds of guns that the street gangs of today carry. Make no mistake, many inner city streets are almost as much of a war zone as any given town in the Middle East.

 

To survive these mean streets, you have to be ready for combat. It’s not enough to have a gun yourself. Sometimes your assailant is on you before you can reach your gun. You have to be able to physically take them down.

 

The problem is that most schools of martial arts don’t prepare you for real world combat. Kung Fu is too florid. Tae Kwon Do spends too much time breaking boards. Karate doesn’t help much against an armed opponent. In nearly all cases, they drill it into your head that you fight “honorably.”

 

What kind of honor is there when you’ve been beaten, robbed or raped because you couldn’t bring yourself to attack what you instinctively know will drop your attacker in an instant? In the heat of battle, do you really have time to think of “no hits below the belt?” Bruce Lee didn’t hesitate to use groin shots, should you?

 

The guy yelling “Give me your wallet!” isn’t thinking of how to mug you honorably. Why should you defend yourself at an extra disadvantage? Taking the high road can get you killed.

Belly Fat is linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Specifically it’s the deepest layer of belly fat–the fat you can’t see or grab–that poses health risks. Belly fat is natural. Its main purpose is actually to protect the vital internal organs. To lose belly fat is to defy nature. This is why it is so difficult to achieve. But you can do it if you stay focused and work hard. If you are working out, you could consider taking a fat burner supplement.

There are some tactics that might help do away with belly fat faster, but only when you’ve already consistently restricted your calorie intake.

 Switch out refined grains for whole grains.

A diet rich in whole grains changes the glucose and insulin response in our body, which hastens the melting of fat, and visceral fat, that deep layer of fat, is easier for our body to burn than the subcutaneous fat under our skin (the fat that we can see and grab).

 Some experts argue, though, that it’s not that these fats specifically target abdominal fat in any way; it’s that anyone will probably lose weight on a lower calorie diet (regardless of where those calories come from) and as discussed earlier, belly fat is usually the first to go.

Soluble fiber (apples, oats, cherries) lowers insulin levels, which, as mentioned earlier, can reduce the presence of cortisol in the stomach

Trans fats (in margarines, crackers, cookies–anything made with partially hydrogenated oils) seem to result in more fat being deposited in the abdomen, so avoid these as much as we can.

 Remember to do intensive cardio workouts, compound weight training, and control your calories intake first, then target your abs with some of these exercises:

3 Stomach Exercises to Build a Solid 6 Pack   (Incline Reverse Crunch – Targets Abs, Weighted Crunch – Builds Bigger Abs, Weighted Russian Twist – Essential 6 Pack Abs Exercise)

Yoga Weight Loss Sequences and Workouts   The exercises consist of both physical exercises, breathing and relaxation. The exercises consist of a series of poses (asanas), which support the spine and strengthen the core. Not just muscular strength, but suppleness and vital energy.

The Right Exercises for the Core Workouts  (Plank – the fundamental isolation exercise for the core ,  Side Plank , Supine Bridge , Bicycle exercise,  Hanging Leg Raises , Hip Twists , Captain’s Chair , Ab crunch ,Superman , Toe Touches, V-sits)

The Boxers / Martial Artist Abdominal workout  Boxers train their core intensively, as it helps to improve strength, stability and agility, all of which are essential in the ring.

Bruce Lee’s Abs Workouts  (Waist twists , Sit-up twists , Leg raises , Leaning twists ,  Frog ,  Roman chair sit-up ,  Leg raises (excellent for the lower abs) , Side bends)

“The abdominal and waist region coordinate all parts of the body and act as the center of generator. Therefore, you can promote the ability to control the body’s action and master your will more easily.” Bruce Lee

5 Minute Pilates Abs, Obliques and Core Strengthening  The exercises here include table top, with plenty of leg raises and crunches. The great thing about Pilates’ exercises is that they can be done gently or intensively, depending on your fitness level.

15 Minute Abs Workout  This stomach workout starts with several variations on the basic crunch, then move on to leg raises, stretches, full planks, side planks, then some more stretches from yoga, including the cobra and child postures. It finishes with some cat stretches to help strengthen the lower back.

2 Minute Abs Blast   classic leg raises, tailbone raises an of course crunches

The key to lose stomach fat is to start today – take action right now, get up and do something. Even if you make just a single change in your eating habits starting today you will see the changes in your body over time.

Hong Kong has been producing films for over a hundred years, and the Avenue of Stars is its tribute. Find the statue of Bruce Lee, the hand print of Jet Li and Jackie Chan when you visit this popular attraction.

 

Visiting Hong Kong is simply an exciting experience. From cultural relics to all the Louis Vuitton bags you can buy can be accomplished here. Day spas are among the best in the world, dining is divine and the nightlife exotic. A trip to the Hong Kong Museum of History will be a trip of discovery, a cruise on the Star Ferry to view the scenic waterfront area of the city is rewarding and those who wish to see the deepest port in the world fill also find it in Hong Kong. The oldest and most visited tourist attraction in Hong Kong remains to be Victoria Peak. And for a piece of fantasy a splash of magic and some soulful family entertainment, visit Hong Kong Disneyland.

 

Whilst visiting the deepest port in Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, one could venture towards the waterfront area of Tsim Sha Tsui. And after taking in the scenic view, another famous attraction can also be found, the Avenue of Stars. A tribute to the film industry and its occupants; this attraction is a worthwhile visit. Enter through Salisbury Garden and see the 4.5 meter tall replica of the award given at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Following which, a 440 meter long promenade can be found.

 

Along the promenade four red pillars can be seen, that detail the hundred year old history of the industry. Plaques are set in the walkway with the names of the celebrated stars. For those who were still alive when the plaque was put in place, their signatures and hand prints go alongside as well. The legendary Bruce Lee is also immortalised in the form of a statue at this popular tourist attraction in Hong Kong.

 

The avenue is lit up at night with special effects, and is a great place to watch the nightly Symphony of Lights show. And on weekends, special live musical performances can also be seen. While at the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars, one may also visit the Culture Centre, Clock Tower, Museum of Art and Space.

 

Famous people from the Hong Kong film industry that can be found include, Sir Run Run Shaw (media mogul), Zhu Shui Lin (film director), Tso Tat Wah (actor), Yam Kim Fai (opera singer), David Chiang (actor), Jackie Chan (actor, director), John Woo (director), Chow Yun Fat (TV and film actor), Jet Li (actor) and many others.

 

For the traveller who enjoys luxury spa treatments and holistic approach to life will definitely enjoy a visit to Chuan Spa. Offering a wide array of treatments and services, Chuan Spa is a popular choice among day spas in Hong Kong.