• Plank - this is found in many of the TT workouts and it’s actually my first answer when people ask me if I can recommend any good abs exercises. It’s so easy to demonstrate, it’s easy to learn and you don’t have to change clothes first to do them. In fact, all you need is a floor
• Side Plank - this as well is found in many of Craig’s workouts. In TT AAA Abs he’s got a variation called Side Plank + DB Lateral Raise which incorporates some of the “resistance to rotate” he talks about during the last exercise.
• Stability Ball Plank - I can’t remember having done that exercise yet, but I’m pretty  sure I’ve done its big brother exercise - the Stability Ball Plank Rollout.
• Stability Ball Jackknife - this as well is a staple exercise in many of Craig’s workouts - you can do them with your hands on the floor or with your elbows on a bench
• Stability Ball Rollout - It seems so easy when you watch Craig demonstrate it in the video, but it’s one of those exercises where your core is really felt (especially when rolling the ball in)
• Plank Rotation - this is the first time I see this exercise, but I bet it’s effective. It should be since it’s actually 3 exercises in one - regular Plank, Side Plank and then the rotation from one to the other.

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A really cool scale that I could connect to my pc via a USB cable and upload date, weight, body fat percentage and lean body mass.

I really liked it, but now I really wished I had known about this cool body fat scale from Withings 6 months ago.

Withings WiFi Body Fat Scale - Connected Bodyscale

It’s been a long time since I was so thrilled to read about a gadget - but this Body Fat scale combines functionality with a cool feature - and looks good as well.

The thing about my USB scale that I loved the most was that I didn’t have to write all my stats down every morning and manually type them into a spreadsheet to get the graphs I wanted - I just plugged the USB cable in and uploaded the data once a week or so.

But there was one major hassle - I had to pick up the scale, make sure I didn’t drop it, walk down to my PC on the ground floor to plug it in - and carry it upstairs again afterwards.

The body fat scale from Withings takes that hassle away. You see, this is not just an ordinary scale - it has a built-in wireless connection so you don’t even have to worry about USB cables anymore.

Withings WiFi Body Fat Scale iPhone and Web App

So, the scale is good looking, it connects and uploads data wirelessly - and both the free iPhone App that comes with it and the web interface looks really cool.

And there’s a chance it can become even cooler since Withings have released an API for it - so be on the lookout for integration with various fitness and health oriented websites that currently allows you to track your weight.

I checked the specs and not only does it support measurements in both Kilo (kg) and Pounds (lbs) - it also supports displaying your weight in Stones and Pounds (stlb)

It measures with a precision or granularity of 0.1 kg which is the norm in current electronic scales.

It measures body fat and lean body mass and calculates your BMI as well.

Unfortunately I’ve used up all my “can I buy this scale honey?”-goodwill for 2009 so I’m sadly not going to get it, but if you’re looking for a really cool scale, then go and get yourself a Withings Connected Body Scale

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The goal was not to get washboard abs, but it was simply to lose weight in a healthy way and get some basic strength into my then fragile body.

But 5 months down the road when I had lost 25 kilo (a little over 55 pounds) and gotten rid of my back and shoulder pains I started getting more and more aware of how I looked.

I had gone down several dress sizes and I looked really good compared to when I was fat, but now I felt that something new was missing – I really wanted to see some good looking abs.

I knew that there was no such thing as specific exercises that could cause fat loss in a localized area – belly fat burning exercises just doesn’t exist; fat (in the form of free fatty acids) is released from fat cells (adipose fat cells) all over your body, travel in your bloodstream to your liver where it’s converted to glucose which is then released into the bloodstream to reach the cells where it’s needed.

And there is no way to get specific fat cells to release fat while at the same time preventing fat being released from other fat cells.

But if targeted fat burning exercises doesn’t exist then does it even make sense to talk about which abs exercises are the best?

Yes, it absolutely makes sense.

Yes, it’s true that there are no belly fat busting exercises, but once your body fat percentage gets low enough you want to have visible and well-defined stomach muscles and not just a flat belly.

So this list of the 5 best abs exercises is not as seen from a fat burning perspective, it’s seen from a muscle development perspective.

1. Rotated Mountain Climbers
2. Stability Ball Curl-up
3. Stability Ball Jackknife
4. Stability Ball Rollout
5. Push/Pull

Rotated Mountain Climbers

Start in the top position of a pushup, bring your right knee up towards your left shoulder, bring it down and repeat with your left knee towards your right shoulder. Make sure you keep your core tensed.

Stability Ball Curl-up

Lie with your lower back centered on the ball, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind your neck, tense your abs and curl up until your shoulders and upper back is clear from the ball, slowly return to your start position.

Stability Ball Jackknife

Elbows on bench, grab the side of the bench with your hands, feet on top of ball, brace your abdominals and pull the ball towards you by tucking your knees in. You can do this exercise without the bench by placing your hands on the floor with your arms straight (like the top position of a pushup). Make sure you keep your back straight.

Stability Ball Rollout

Kneel in front of a stability ball with your hands clenched and resting on the ball. Keeping your back straight, slowly roll the ball away from your body by letting your hands roll over the ball. Fully extended you’ll have a straight line from your knees, throughout your core and extending through your stretched out arms. Slowly return to the starting position.

Push/Pull

I have no idea if this exercise has a real name, but it was an exercise I saw someone doing in my gym. After he left I tried it out and it  worked my abdominal muscles in a way I’ve never experienced before.

It’s a bit complicated to set up the start position of this exercise, and a bit awkward to do the actual routine, so take it slowly.

Place a bench slightly to the side under a high pulley. Sit on the bench, grab one handle with your left hand. In your right hand you’ll have a dumbbell. Lean back and lift your butt off the bench with your right shoulder in the start position of a bench press and your left arm fully extended.

This is the starting position. Now pull down hard with your left hand and push up fast with our right arm, return slowly to the starting position.

These are the 5 best abs exercises I can recommend from personal experience – and just one of them (the Push/Pull) requires real gym equipment. The Rotated Mountain Climbers can be done anywhere and the remaining 3 exercises only require a Stability Ball (a.k.a. Swiss Ball)

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Let’s start with a few of those I already know: Kevin Hogan and Stephen Covey

At the time when I became NLP certified Practitioner and Business Practitioner I read some of Kevin Hogans work - mostly the stuff related to persuation.

Stephen Covey needs no real introduction; I’ve got his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in my bookshelf right next to me.

The rest of the lineup is Jack Trout, Joseph Jaffe, Michael Bosworth, Russell Granger and Bert Decker.

Not people I’m very familiar with, but I guess I will be after October 29 when this first panel airs.

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I’m talking Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Jay Conrad Levinson & Brian Tracy - 53 experts in total.

The free access is 6 weeks, 9 panel expert interviews each 2 hours long.

One thing I picked up from a 77 minute long conference call I just listened to is that the interviews will air at 8PM no matter where you’re located in the world.

Coming from Europe this is a really cool thing since I’ve had to pass on teleseminars in the past just because they aired at 3 or 4AM.

Another thing I picked up was that there are no credit card required for the first 6 weeks.

The interviews launch on October 15th at 3PM EST or 9PM CET

The last thing I picked out from the conference call is that they will have some social media experts discuss each interview afterwards and give their view on how to put the information into action.

So it’s actually 2×9x2 hours of information.

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Image via Wikipedia

Just became aware of yet another article about Vitamin D through Sixty million years of evolution says vitamin D may save your life from swine flu

It turns out that genes related to our immune defense system that are regulated by Vitamin D have existed and survived evolution for million of years in primates.

“The antimicrobial peptide that we’re studying seems to be involved not just in killing bacteria, but has other biological roles,” Gombart said. “It recruits other immune cells and sort of sounds the alarm that something is wrong. It helps promote development of blood vessels, cell growth and healing of wounds. And it seems to have important roles in barrier tissues such as skin and the digestive system. Vitamin D is very important for the health of the skin and digestive system, and putting the cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide gene under its regulation may be important in this function.”

So, do like our cavemen ancestors did and catch a few rays of sunshine to boost your immune system.

Original Source: Key feature of immune system survived in humans, other primates for 60 million years

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It describes itself as:

“At last, An amazing NEW breakthrough system based on the latest cutting-edge brain technology that completely removes the ROOT CAUSE of all your life’s problems and frustrations automatically with no effort on your part!

…Now you can achieve your fullest potential in your finances, relationships, health and every aspect of your life! 100% guaranteed, or you don’t pay a dime!!!”

FYI: It’s not a program I’ve tried myself - I just wanted to let you know about its existence.

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This one is also a 12 week - aka 84 day challenge, but unlike TTTC it spans Fitness, Business and Life.

What separates this contest from TTTC is that there are prizes given away every 21 days - and then a grand finale prize at the end of the 84 days.

I’m tempted to join this one as well as the TTTC that I’m currently doing just for the Business and Life part of it, and continue with my Turbulence Training workouts for the Fitness part.

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