An Average Joe’s Point of View on Fitness, Nutrition, Exercise and Supplements

It’s the first of the month again, and you know what that means. It’s Gold Card time again at GNC. In the past, I’ve mentioned how I have one and use it. But for you new readers who may be unfamiliar with it, I’ll quickly cover it.

The GNC Gold Card is GNC’s discount membership program. A Gold Card only costs $15 per year and gets you 20% off of your entire purchase during the first 7 days of every month. All you have to do is spend $75 and the Gold Card pays for itself. Not to mention, if you spend $75 at GNC.com, you get free shipping. This is a great program for anyone who buys vitamins or supplements on a recurring basis.

Here are some great deals GNC has going this month.

Multivitamins
GNC Ultra Mega Gold - 90 Count
Regular Price: $17.99
Gold Card Price: $14.39

GNC Women’s Ultra Mega Active - 90 Count
Regular Price: $19.99
Gold Card Price: $15.99

GNC Mega Men Sport - 90 Count
Regular Price: $19.99
Gold Card Price: $15.99

Reebok Speed Pack 25 lb. Adjustable Dumbbell
Regular Price: $79.99
Sale Price: $39.99

The Perfect Pushup
Regular Price: $49.99
Sale Price: $39.99

Muscle Milk - Chocolate Milk 2.48 lbs
Regular Price: $46.99
Sale Price: $34.99
Gold Card Price: $27.99

Suffering from Painful Heart Burn

For people who suffer from heart burn on a regular basis, they probably could not think of anything else that could be worse, even though there are probably plenty of things that could be much worse in terms of pain. But when you are a person with chronic heart burn, it may seem like there is no hope in sight. However, that is simply not the case. There are plenty of things a person with heart burn can do to try and help the situation and ease the pain.

While the name of the condition is heart burn, it really has nothing to do with the heart in any way, shape, or form. But, because the pain is usually begins just below the breastbone, it could feel like your heart, or your entire chest is on fire. This intense and unforgettable feeling can actually make its way up the throat and into the mouth and jaw of the person who is suffering from it. Heart burn is caused by gastric acid being regurgitated back up and just as anyone would suspect, acid burns and hurts incredibly bad.

Treating Heart Burn

Even though the effects of over the counter antacids only last up to an hour, for some people, this is all they need to make it through the heart burn attack. For them, this is the wonder drug that saves their life but for others with more serious forms of heart burn, this simply will not do the trick and have to resort to prescribed medications. If you suffer from a lot of heart burn and the typical antacids are not working, then it may be time to speak with your family doctor about your troubles.

Then again, you could always try to change your diet around a little as this may be all you need to fix your problem without having to take a lot of pills. If you try and track for a few weeks what you eat and then track when you experience the heart burn, you may begin to notice a trend. For some people, certain fatty foods and drinks containing a lot of caffeine will cause heart burn. Simply removing these things from your diet may help along with making sure that you are not eating too fast. With a little bit of trial and error you may be able to fix the heart burn yourself but if you can’t, then make sure that you talk with your doctor.

Yes, believe it or not, your waist size can tell more about the state of your health than you think. It’s obvious that a bulging waistline is far from aesthetically pleasing. However, just as unpleasing could be the hints it’s giving you about the state of your health. To get right down to it, there are links between increased risks of morbidity, cardiovascular disease, and other serious heart conditions and the fat around your waist, the visceral fat.

Visceral fat is the fat that is packed in between the organs in the abdominal area. Excess visceral fat pushes the organs out and leads to a pot belly. One of the dangers of visceral fat is that since it is between the organs in the abdomen and underneath the muscle, it can go undetected until there are large excesses of it and the pot belly forms.

Visceral fat is a very dangerous threat. Now you may ask, isn’t all body fat a threat? First let me say that there are two kinds of body fat. There is subcutaneous fat, which is fat that is underneath the skin. Then there is visceral fat. What makes visceral fat so dangerous is that, according to Donovan Baldwin,

Unlike “subcutaneous fat” which is found below the skin, visceral fat secretes inflammatory hormones which can cause organ damage (heart, kidney, brain) at a cellular level. So, while obesity in general is a problem to be dealt with, visceral fat (belly fat) in particular demands immediate and special attention.

So exercising and eating better to trim down that pot belly won’t just make your clothes fit better, it will also decrease your chances of serious health conditions. And you can also say that your slim stomach isn’t just sexy on the outside, but it’s healthy on the inside.

Are There Benefits Of Practicing Yoga?

Absolutely! There are so many physical benefits of practicing yoga that it can be hard to name them all. The primary emphasis of yoga is on well-being of the self. It is not considered to be therapy for specific illnesses or injuries. Instead, it gives a broad holistic approach, where practitioners learn a new lifestyle and way of thinking and being in the world. A byproduct of this “new life” is the healing effects of yoga. As a person practices yoga, they often find that some benefits of yoga are the fact that some of the specific difficulties he or she has will tend to go away. These effects have been verified clinically. Let’s look as a few of the benefits of yoga as they pertain to specifics.

Healing Effects – Benefits Of Yoga

One of the most important benefits of yoga is its ability to relieve fatigue and stress, to invigorate the body vitality, and the fact that it is anti-aging and a wonderful relaxation therapy.

Yoga has been shown to improve asthma in approximately 75% of cases. Also, asthma attacks can be preventing using yoga instead of drugs. Other studies claim a 93% improvement rate.

For severe breathing problems like chronic bronchitis and emphysema, studies have shown that yoga helped with the ability to exercise, and in ways that traditional physiotherapy did not. Most of them increased their tolerance for exertion and recovered after exertion more quickly than before. They also gained the ability to control their breathing problems.

High blood pressure (hypertension) can be treated and prevented with the relaxation and exercise aspects of yoga.

Yoga is believed to reduce pain, by helping the brain’s pain center regulate the secretion of natural painkillers in the body. Breathing exercises also help with reducing pain. These can be a one of the most wonderful benefits of yoga, since all of us have pain at one time or another.

Back pain has been cured and prevented by using yoga. Yoga will enhance strength and flexibility. Also, reducing the muscle tension can reduce back problems.

Diabetes has also been shown to improve while practicing yoga, so that their blood sugar lowered and they needed less oral medicine. However, the patients in this study were also put on a vegetarian diet, so the yoga alone might not have been responsible for the improvement.

According to one study examining the benefits of yoga, yoga can give one a positive outlook on life and raise one’s energy level, even greater than the other options chosen for the study – relaxation and visualization. The yoga group had much greater increase in mental and physical energy and feelings of enthusiasm and alertness. (Relaxation made people more sleepy, visualization made them more sluggish and less content with life.)

Because yoga is a gentle form of exercise, it is a good way to get relief for arthritis – what a benefit of basic yoga! Exercise has long been recommended for arthritis as a treatment, but now, as long as it is not too much of a strain, yoga can help with arthritis. Yoga does not need to cause pain or strain. Even if you can only move an inch and hold the position for about five seconds, you are enhancing your body’s flexibility – though slowly. Be careful not to overdo yoga on a hurting body!

Each of these benefits of yoga can be yours if you become a yogi – or practicer of yoga.

It’s March Madness! Men’s Health has a unique twist on it, Muscle Madness. Go vote to for your favorite exercise and check back to see which one is voted best.