Posts by Craig Ballantyne
The Sore Knee Catch-22
Being overweight causes you to have sore knees. Having sore knees makes you avoid exercise. Avoiding exercise causes you to gain weight. Being overweight…
Read MoreA Surprise Danger to Your Knees and Back
Last spring, I made the mistake of wearing flip-flops on a couple of long walks with my dog. “What does it matter?” I thought. “It’s just an hour walk.” But after doing this a couple of times, I noticed that my knees were sore and my ankles were stiff.
Read MoreThe Best Way to Strengthen Your Body
Lack of strength is the number one reason for falls in the elderly, so strengthening your body is essential as you get older. Now research proves that you can gain strength and muscle at any age.
Read MoreWho Says Fruit Makes You Fat?
Here’s one thing you’ll never see reported in ETR: “Eating Apples Makes You Fat.” Yet, one of the most popular search terms for people ending up on my fitness blog is “Does fruit make you fat?” For some reason, folks have been brainwashed by misinformation in muscle magazines that tell us fruit makes us fat.…
Read MoreA Fast Benefit From Cardio
I’m not a huge fan of traditional aerobic cardio workouts for fat loss. They’re inefficient, ineffective, and can cause injury. However, aerobics can have an immediate health benefit for anyone who makes the mistake of indulging in too much food.
Read MoreThe 2 Things Killing Your Weight Loss
Monday to Friday, you are a fat-burning robot. You work out first thing in the morning, eat breakfast, have a high-protein salad for lunch, a healthy afternoon snack, and then a sensible dinner. It all adds up to a pound of fat loss per week.
Read MoreThe Green Tea Scam
Green tea is a healthy drink. It’s been shown to boost brain health, protect against Parkinson’s, increase metabolism, protect the prostate, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. But, contrary to claims made in many ads making the rounds these days, it does NOT cause weight loss. Researchers from Taiwan randomized 78 overweight women…
Read MoreTake Baby Steps to Better Health
I get hundreds of e-mails every day, but only a few of them upset me. And those are the ones from guys who are under 30 and feel that they’ll never be in good shape again. It is frustrating that so many men, and women, think they are over the hill in their late 20s. Can you believe that?
Read MoreInterval Training Is Heart-Healthy
ETR has reported on the health and fat-burning benefits of interval training for years now. But the mainstream media is just finally catching on.
Read MoreThe Meal-Replacement Bar Paradox
The other night, after filming a set of workout videos at a friend’s gym, I reviewed the plethora of meal-replacement energy bars at the front counter. Some were made with all-natural ingredients, while others contained numerous chemicals. But all had about 250-300 calories.
Read More3 “Core” Exercises for Beginners
It’s summer – the time of year when almost everyone wants six-pack abs. But if you’re a beginner at exercise – especially if you’re overweight – the worst thing you can do to lose belly fat is hit the floor and do hundreds of crunches and sit-ups.
Read MoreA Neglected Metabolism-Boosting Move
If you want to burn a lot of calories, you need to do a lot of resistance-training exercises for the back of your body, not just the front. Your entire upper back is one of your biggest muscle groups. By exercising this important area, you can burn more calories than if you just train your chest and stomach muscles.
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