Potassium helps us maintain proper electrical and cellular body functions. Adequate intake of potassium, 4.7 grams per day, recommended by Institute of Medicine can do the following:

1. maintains lower blood pressure levels
2. prevents kidney stones
3. improves glucose metabolism
4. decreases bone loss
5. helps building muscles

Lack of potassium can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, and slow reflexes.
Taking potassium pills is generally unnecessary. One can have adequate amount of potassium by consuming vegetables (dark greens, lima beans, peas, tomatoes, and potatoes with skin), fish (salmon, cod, flounder), fruits (bananas, citrus, apples), and lean meats.

This is an active hamstring stretch that you can do before exercising. Active hamstring stretch will help you warm up your legs, lengthen your core muscles, and improve coordination.

As some of us have experienced, extending our arms straight while doing “arm raise” makes the exercise harder comparing to having our elbow bent. Also, if you extend your arm above your head while doing crunches, you will need to use more abdominal strength to get yourself up from the ground. The reason behind this phenomenon is based on the “levers of the musculoskeletal system”. To make the lever theory simple, as you extend the distance of the outside force (a dumbbell) from your pivot point (shoulder), your must exert more force to lift the weight or keep it parallel to the ground. Also, when you extend your arm out when doing crunches, gravity pulls your hands down at further distance away from your pivot point, hip flexors; therefore you will need to use larger force to crunch up. In conclusion, if you need to make your exercises more intense, extend the weight further from the pivot point will help you do more work.

Some exercises for you to experiment:

1. arms front raise
2. arms  lateral raise
3. basic crunches
4. hip abduction
5. hip adduction
6. bicep curls with different angle at elbow, the pivot point

I picked up a copy of “Core Performance for Endurance” by Mark Verstegen last week. Again, my curiosity for different exercise programs has driven me to try his core workout. Mark uses half of the book explaining why core strength is important, which I find it to be a bit wordy. But he reassures me that having a strong core muscles will help me compete and live as an efficient individual. His core workout takes about 20 to 30 minutes per day. I break down his exercises into three segments and do them during my break at work. Mark Verstegen has a website for his “Core Performance“, which also gives you plenty of information about core training. I’d suggest doing his core training at least 3 times a week in addition to your strength and cardiovascular training.

Great fitness and health guide that I came across when browsing through ESPN during my lunch break.

To avoid overeating later at night but still eating enough to replenish myself from an intense workout, I raided my fridge and made myself a “Turkey Rice Salad”…with rice salad buried under the vegetables. Ingredients are listed below.

Rice Salad:

1. 1/4 cups of steamed brown rice
2. a handful of chopped black olives
3. a small bunch of chopped parsley
4. 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

Remaining Ingredients:

1. a bunch of steamed broccoli
2. 1 stick of zucchini
3. a handful of chickpeas
4. 1 handful of chopped red bell peppers
5. 1/4 lbs. of deli low-sodium turkey meat

Choice of Beverage:

1. 1 cup of unsweetened soy milk

Although ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injury happens more to females because of their natural biomechanical characterisitcs, I highly recommend males, athlete or not, taking the initiatives to prevent such devastating injury. Not only a person can suffer ACL injury from his or her natural body movements, but he or she can get injured by poor flexibility, stability, and imbalanced muscles strength. Experts recommend preventing ACL injury by:

1. landing with bent hips and knees
2. focusing on knee alignment when landing
3. taking smaller steps when changing directions
4. increasing complexity of exercises only after proper training

One of my good friends, Peter, has created a “point system” to keep himself productive in the 2008. He awards himself points for making lunch and dinner, going to the gym, reading a book within a time frame, or subtracts points for skipping workouts, not eating healthy regularly, etc. Peter has a goal to score a certain amount of points by end of the year. For those of you who is actively seeking for motivation to have an active lifestyle, “point system” is a great tool to record your progress.

A common strength training practice has the lifter lifting extra forced repetitions when he or she reaches failure in order to increase strength. However, according to an article posted by National Strength and Conditioning Association, neither addition volume (weight lifted) nor forced repetitions will help anyone increase his or her strength. So, don’t hurt yourself - once you fail, you have pushed yourself hard enough. Live for the moment, and prepare for next set.

I have learned my lesson of having new year resolutions - they rarely come true, and not because of lack of motivation, but life is unpredictable; I could not always get my workout done entirely or eat the healthiest meal 24/7. Therefore, I have come up with some SOLUTIONS to our goals of getting fit and staying healthy in 2008, without feeling guilty of enjoying life.

1. Shoe lovers - have only two pairs of shoes near your doormat at a time, one for work and the other pair for workout. Either before or after work, your $100 Shox will remind you to step out and exercise.
2. Shopaholic - so you like shopping, great, carry your own bags and walk a little faster from stores to stores.
3. Food lovers - pick a nice restaurant that is at least 2 miles from either your apartment or office every weekend. Walk to that destination and enjoy the meal.
4. Dessert lovers - pick your favorite dessert spot (hopefully some distance away from your dinner restaurant) and walk there after dinner so you are burning off some calories before digging into a cup of ice cream.
5. Beverage lovers - if you are having drinks with friends after dinner, then keep your beverage consumption to the minimum, one serving preferable, before meeting them. While chatting away in a bar, lounge, or wherever, keep everything in moderation as well.
6. Game lovers - save up, get yourself a Wii game or Dance Dance Revolution, then work up a sweat at beating your own record or having tournaments with your buddies.
7. All of us - don’t pay for a gym membership if you doubt that you will be going there 3 to 4 times a week. Save up the money and gear up for this winter to stay active from doing outdoor activities.

Happy New Year!