The Hardest Abs in the World!

The audience cannot believe their eyes, looking spellbound from what’s happening on stage and keeping their hands from barely covering their faces, as 15 cars drive over the washboard stomach of 26-year-old Danijel Peric. He sings the Italian song O Sole Mio as each vehicle drives slowly over his abdominals. But how can this be? And how crazy is this guy to get run over by cars? Danijel Peric answers these and other burning questions in an interview below with fitness.com.

Fitness.com: First question, don’t your muscles ache?

Danijel Peric: No, not at all. Shortly after the show they did hurt a bit, because of a few cars, but apart from a few blue spots on the left side and slight pressure pain, everything was okay.

Fitness.com: The summer season is approaching, so give us a few tips. How do you get your Sixpack?

Danijel Peric: Consistent training, good nutrition and physical values with the right balance. Pure abdominal training is not enough. The exercises have to be all muscle groups, including the lateral abdominal muscles. In the evening, don’t eat carbohydrates because they take longer to be absorbed by the body.

Fitness.com: What does your typical training session consist of?

Danijel Peric: Generally I hit the gym for 35 to 40 minutes of endurance training for fat loss. In my stature, it is important to keep the body at a 127er and 128er pulse. I train mostly on the treadmill, a stepper and a bike for at least 30 minutes. But the longer the better. After the warm-up I do normal sit-ups. Overall, it is between 500 and 700. There are a variety of other exercises for the lower abdominal muscles as well. There is the "Eagle Abdominal" exercise. You sit in a device, where the legs are on a roll angle and it pushes you up guided by a pole with the arms stretched forward. The upper body is always moving forward. This trains the abdominal muscles and strengthens the muscles even more. The aim of the training is to reduce the fat layer so that the skin is directly on a hard surface.

Fitness.com: How do you usually stay fit?

Danijel Peric: I’ve played soccer since I was nine, and I played for the regional team based in Hamburg. Now I’m an external link here in Hamburg-Barmbek Uhlenhorst. I train three times a week plus every weekend.

Fitness.com: But how did you get the idea of driving cars over your stomach? And how do you train for this?

Danijel Peric: The idea came from my friends. They all know I have strong abdominals and two friends had the idea that my stomach could take on anything. So, then I had the spontaneous idea, to let heavy things go onto my stomach. First we built a temporary ramp. I put a pad on the abdomen, and a friend drove the car over my stomach and it worked. I was able to bear the weight for a bit of time. A friend then said that we must go even further to provide added value. So then the idea of singing came into play.

Fitness.com: Was it all a planned PR gag?

Danijel Peric: I knew that the idea was cool. But it was not the response I expected.

Fitness.com: How has the TV appearance changed your life?

Danijel Peric: The response after the TV show "Wetten, dass ...?" has given me the opportunity to gain popularity on other television programs through requests from production companies and managers. Finally, I owe my appearance on the show some gratitude since I now have a contract position at the Management Company "Pool Position"'.

Fitness.com: What's next for you? Do you have any concrete plans?

Danijel Peric: Yes, I have had several requests from fitness magazines and car dealerships for promotions, but also interest from production companies.

Fitness.com: Let us go back to "O sole mio". Is Opera your passion?

Danijel Peric: I like classical music. I had classical vocal training in Drama School. The first step for me, Luciano Pavarotti.
I like singing Opera for the melody, the poetry and the stories they tell. The idea with "O sole mio" was intuitive. I just knew while in action I had to sing this song.

Fitness.com: Thank you and have fun training!

Additional page:

Here is the video from Danijel Peric, of the TV show "Wetten dass ...?" 15 cars drive over his washboard stomach as he sings "o sole mio".

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2 Essential Items for Success

Over the years I have coached and educated tens of thousands of people. This includes my time spend teaching high school, working as a lab instructor in university, presenting at conferences as well as working in a fitness setting with everyone from business professionals to elite athletes. And you know what? There is a common thread unifying all of the ones who have had the greatest success. This common thread is that they made a mental commitment to do what it takes to realize success. They bought into the plan and made the sacrifices to realize their goal. Their efforts were symbolic of a direction rather than a destination. And the success they have enjoyed has spilled over to other areas of their life and given them the confidence to succeed at whatever they choose. I believe it may have have been the basketball coach Bobby Knight who said, 'everyone wants success but not everyone wants to works for success'. Until we decide we want to work for success we are subconsciously resisting our potential for success.

The second item that must be present for success is to eliminate negatives. In a fitness setting we want to ensure all the bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and muscles interact optimally. As soon as we detect an alignment issue we use the best methods available to clean up the deficiency and restore proper function. If we do not take the time to address and correct these issues then the chance of injury increases and the effectiveness of our workouts decreases. It would not make sense to continue adding load to the bar during our workouts if we noticed an alignment issue, or worse pain, during the movement. We must eliminate what is wrong first before proceeding towards our goal.

Another way of looking at this is from a nutritional perspective. Many realize the importance nutrition plays in achieving optimal health and performance and will often times seek out a supplement to enhance their progress. While there are a lot of great supplements out there, look first to see if there are any negatives you can remove from your nutritional plan before you add something. Are you eating fast food and trans fat? Do you drink soda or any form of high-fructose-corn-syrup? Do you drink enough water? Do you eat enough fibre? Do you eat before and after very workout? Do you have fish at least three times a week? Depending on your answers to these there may be some things that can be eliminated from the diet to improve your health before you seek something to add.

I believe these to be the two best pieces of advice for success and can be applied to many other areas of your life. You are all in different fields and can probably think of ways this may benefit your customers, friends and family. Pass along your wisdom and I will post for everyone's benefit.

All the best.

The Importance of Flexibility

As you age, your muscles naturally lose strength and size and can become less supple and stiffer. This can affect the range of movement around your joints, which may lead to stiffness in the muscles and joints. It is this loss of tissue elasticity that can cause muscles and joints to tighten up.

One of the key reasons that muscles lose their natural suppleness and flexibility and can become prone to tears, aches, and pains is being inactive. If the situation is not remedied in time, loss of flexibility could lead to permanent changes in posture and normal muscle function. It is therefore imperative to maintain muscle flexibility as an important component of overall fitness.

So, what exactly is flexibility?

Flexibility can be termed as the ability of your joints and body parts to execute their full range of motion. Flexibility is required in all your day-to-day activities such as bending, walking, lifting, etc. Being flexible allows your muscles to remain moble. But, like most things, flexibility decreases with age and it is very important to include flexibility exercises in your daily workout regimen.

The Benefits of Flexibility

There are a number of ways to test your flexibility. One of the most common ways, according to fitness experts, is to check if you can touch your toes while standing up with both legs straight. (You could check out various fitness sites available online for a more exact test.) If you find that you feel stiff, lacking in flexibility, suffering from bad posture or would like to increase your flexibility to improve your normal exercise routine, flexibility training is a must. Aerobic exercises and weight training include rapid and jerky movements, which can lead to joint and muscle fatigue. On the other hand, stretching exercises, yoga, and Pilates consist of gradual movements that can help to achieve greater flexibility.

Other Benefits

Being flexible helps to reduce soreness of muscles and improve posture. Stretching for slow gradual movements and holding each position for up to 30 seconds (without pain) helps reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Stretching also improves muscular balance and posture by realigning tissue and thereby reducing the effort it takes to maintain good posture throughout the day.Helps decrease risk of injury and improve physical performance. Flexible joints require less energy to move through a greater range of motion. This decreases your overall risk of injury and increases physical performance as well. Stretching works towards decreasing resistance in muscle tissue during any activity. Helps increase blood and nutrients to tissues. By stretching, you increase the temperature of your tissues and this increases transportation of nutrients and overall circulation. This in turn increases the range of motion and reduces degeneration of your joints.Helps reduce lower back pain. Stretching helps relax muscles. The more flexible your pelvic muscles, hamstrings, hip flexors, and quadriceps, the less stress to your lower back. Helps to enhance enjoyment of other exercise. In addition to decreasing soreness and fatigue of your muscles, stretching also helps relax both mind and body during any activity or exercise.

Ways to Improve Your Flexibility

So, what are some different ways to stay flexible? The best way to maintain flexibility is to stretch regularly. Whatever your age, you must incorporate stretching at least once a day. Even if it is not part of an exercise regimen, there are several simple stretching exercises that you can do at your desk or even in front of the TV. If time is short, focus on stretches that work the larger muscle groups such as shoulders, hamstrings, hips and lower back, and calf muscles. It is these areas that are prone to stiffness and soreness as we grow older. But remember to always be careful to not overdo it.

Flexibility exercises should also be incorporated into your normal exercise program, which may involve resistance (strength) training and cardiovascular exercise (walking, jogging, swimming and cycling). By doing so, you can improve both the quantity and quality of your muscles, joints and overall health.That being said, yoga is an effective way to complement your exercise routine for greater flexibility. Unlike most other physical exercise that work only on a physical level, yoga involves both your mental and physical capabilities. There is a balance of energy between the body and the brain as well as increasing your flexibility, toning your muscles, and improving your lung capacity. All basic yoga poses work towards increasing the flexibility of the body so that it is capable of performing more complicated poses as time goes by. It would be wise therefore to incorporate yoga as a regular part of your workout program.

There are several ways to improve your flexibility. Stretching and exercise help considerably but you also need to keep an eye on your diet and nutrition. Eating junk food and snacking on fatty and sugary snacks can make matters worse. You can promote fitness by combining a balanced diet (full of fresh fruits and vegetables) along with nutritional supplements that support joint health and improve your mobility. Taking a supplement like GoFlex can help you incorporate the nutritional building blocks required to support healthy bone and cartilage structure and improve flexibility. Ask your doctor whether a supplement, like GoFlex, is the right choice for you.

Yoga: 5 Ways to Improved Health

Yoga has been known to affect people’s health in many ways. Its primary function is to promote body relaxation and increase flexibility, but researchers have proven Yoga to have even greater affects on people’s health. In a recent study from Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, they showed how three 75 minute yoga sessions a week helped ease symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis. The study was performed on a group of women between the ages of 45 and 75. The Yoga sessions had other positive results for the group of women including: improved balance, and a decrease in symptoms of depression.

But, there are many ways that Yoga can help improve your health. Here Fitness.com lists 5 major and perhaps surprising things Yoga can do for you:

1. Helps Fight Food Cravings: Yes! It’s true! A regular Yoga routine can actually keep you from putting on that extra bit of weight you’ve been trying so desperately to fight off. Food cravings are generally known to strike when our body and muscles are feeling tense, therefore loosening muscles with Yoga movements can really make you fight off that chocolate bar craving. Prevention magazine put out a study where they used 15,500 average weight adult males and females - where they gained 3 fewer pounds annually over the course of four years when following a set routine of 30 minute Yoga sessions per week.

2. Increases Your Performance in the Bedroom: The movements that you use in Yoga aren’t only useful on a Yoga mat, but in the bedroom as well. Yoga is known to improve balance and flexibility. According to Women’s Health, yoga followers can use the strength and confidence they develop in Yoga for the bedroom. With such movements that increase your blood flow and body alignments that increase sexual desire, Yoga is definitely a bedroom enhancer. Poses that focus on abdominal contractions that strengthen your core will also strengthen your orgasms because of the focus on the pelvic muscles. Yoga can also make you more assertive under the sheets.

3. Helps Cancer Patients Sleep Easy: The focus on meditation and breathing in Yoga poses generally help relieve stress from your day, and make you sleep better at night. A study from the University of Texas Cancer Centre showed how cancer patients improved their sleeping patterns by practicing Tibetan yoga. Patients took a 20 minute yoga session once a week for a period of 7 weeks, leaving them falling asleep faster, easier, and having a reduction in their sleep medication dosages.

4. Decreases Risk of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases: Balancing your life with a regular Yoga routine can greatly benefit your heart. A study found in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, looking at 98 adults with different health issues (hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, etc.), found a huge improvement in cholesterol and blood sugar levels of these individuals with the addition of a regular Yoga routine. All 98 adults took part in an 8 day lifestyle modification program based on Yoga poses focusing on posture, meditation, breathing, support, and nutrition.

5. Makes for a Healthy Pregnancy: Yoga poses can not only calm you, but your little one swimming around inside you new mothers to be. According to a study found in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, new mothers who practice yoga tend to have a safe delivery. 335 women that were studied added a yoga routine during their second trimester, birthed healthy weight babies with lower pregnancy- induced hypertension.

Boomer Fitness: A New Way of Life for the Middle Aged

What is boomer fitness? I asked myself the same question when I read in the WebMD health news that it was a hot fitness trend for 2009. After doing a bit more research on it, I found that boomer fitness is a new and innovative way for people over the age of 50 to keep in shape. The name “boomer” associates people within the baby boomer era, who are now over the age of 50 and struggling to fight off the many signs of aging. One popular way to do this is with the help of Boomer Fitness. Here is a little more insight on the increase in fitness for the baby boomer era, and how Boomer Fitness might be the right choice for you.

Baby Boomers at the Gym

With the decline in covered health care especially in America, the baby boomers have a great need for overall health and fitness. Many have turned to gyms across the nation to get the support and exercise that will keep them healthy, active, and out of the emergency room. According to International Health, Racquet and Sports Club Association, this age bracket of adults are joining gyms at a rapid rate. They claim that the number of health club members over the age of 55 increased by 343% from 1987 to 2003, and those between the ages of 34-55 went up 180%.

Colin Milner, the CEO of the International Council on active aging says that “this is a market that is only going to grow more as time goes on.” Milner believes that people are becoming aware of things that they thought were wrong with their bodies due to signs of aging, when the reality of it is they are simply due to disuse of the body. There are more and more health concerns for the aging majority: heart disease, obesity, blood pressure, osteoporosis, and diabetes, to name a few, and evidence shows that keeping fit into your elder years can help prevent them.

Boomer Fitness

Boomer Fitness only became this new fitness breakthrough when health and fitness clubs started to change. One major company that was on the ball, was the ever-growing health club called Curves. Curves is a women’s only health club that started in 1995 with a 30 minute circuit training program for women over the age of 45. With only one location, Curves grew to over 1,000 locations in under 36 months. Now known all over the world, Curves has over 9,000 gyms and is still growing.

One might ask though, what is so special about this gym, and other gyms that are now changing their ways for the baby boomers? Well, for many reasons, Curves made exercise simple and effective with only 30 minute sessions. It therefore makes exercise attainable for those that lead busy, stressful lives. It also has a more accurate model for achievement amongst the elderly. It did away with trying to get that “perfect body” and catered more to the average person. It gives a more realistic perspective on fitness, and can appeal more to those that may not be as interested in exercising. And finally, as the baby boomers age, more and more people will fall under this age group so there will be an even greater need for exercise programs suited for the elderly.

No Pain No Gain: Not True!

Many people believe in the “no pain, no gain” theory when it comes to their workouts. Believing that pain means progress, they continue to work out intensely despite pain and discomfort.

There are others who say that continuing your exercise routine in an effort to toughen the body, may not be a smart thing to do. Is it really true? No pain, no gain? In relationship to fitness training, this phrase first originated in the early 1980s. Since then, people have adopted the idea that in order to gain any benefit from their fitness exercise program, it needs to hurt and perhaps even hurt badly. This is farthest from the truth. In fact, if you experience pain after your exercise routine and still continue to exercise in spite of the pain, you may be traumatizing your joints and muscles which may lead to further injury.

Some trainers or coaches recommend working twice as hard if your don’t feel any pain the morning after an intense workout. Such ill-advised exercise workouts can be hazardous to your muscles and joints. That kind of advice may account for the rise in sports and exercise related injuries these days.

Pain: The Body’s Warning Signal. Pain is often the body’s warning signal system, and not as a gauge to measure the success of a workout. Pain is an indication that something is wrong and that your body needs attention where it hurts. This is the reason for physical pain. Think about it. If we did not have pain, we would never know there’s something wrong with our bodies and this could have disastrous results. Anybody who wants to seriously follow an exercise regimen should keep in mind that pain is not necessary for a successful workout. No doubt, there may be an initial discomfort when beginning any exercise routine. But this discomfort should gradually subside as muscles and joints grow stronger and are able to withstand the intensity of a workout.

A good rule of thumb to follow is: if it hurts, don’t continue exercising! Even slight pain, sensation or swelling of a joint is an indication that the joint needs rest. If pain persists, you may want to consult a doctor. Many fitness experts believe that exercise should be a fun activity that you enjoy and not a rigorous workout. It should challenge your muscles and joints to greater strength and flexibility and yet be comfortable enough so that there is no pain.

What You Can Do to Help Painful Joints: First and foremost, if you experience pain you should consider speaking to your doctor about it. Always follow your doctor’s advice, then, along with resting the injured joint, you may want to try joint supplement with targeted nutrients to support joint health! Glucosamine, hyal joint, MSM, Interhealth collagen type II along with herbs like boswellin and white willow bark have been well researched and are known to help support joint health long term.While pain killers simply dull the ache, joint health supplement that are well-formulated, like GoFlex, can help strengthen the cartilage and lubricate the joint. It also comes with a topical cream containing an food and drug administration-approved ingredient that helps bring fast-acting pain relief.

Take care of pain the right way. Have fun as you exercise and combine your daily workout with a daily intake of joint supplements. While you workout your body, such supplements help to nutritionally support joint health from the inside.

Fitness Trends for 2010!

Are you looking for something new and innovative to change your regular fitness routine? Well, so is fitness.com! Our experts have searched and found some new ideas that you just may not have come across yet, and that might spark your interest. So here we have fitness.com’s new fitness trends to try for 2010. Have a look!

Spynga

What is this foreign word called Spynga you ask? Well, it is exactly what you get when you combine your typical spin class with a yoga class. It is the most unique blend of fitness that gives you the fat-blasting cardio workout from your spin class, with the relaxation and harmony of yoga. Classes usually start with an hour of intense spinning on the stationary bike, and then transferring to the mat for some Vinyasa yoga. Focus then revolves around breathing and movements through a variety of yoga poses.

Fluidity Bars

If you want to focus on stretching, resistance, and strength, than the Fluidity Bar just might be your bet. However, fluidity bars can be quite expensive starting around 240.00$ US, which generally includes a beginner DVD and diet guide. Using the bar you include moves that are both seated and standing for litheness and strength. Muscle groups aren’t isolated like they are in Pilates or normal weight training, so that muscle gain is proportionate. But if cardio work-outs are what you are after the Fluidity bar may not be the right choice, although it can be easily paired up with cardio activities that increase your heart rate.

Gyrotonics

Yes these machines have been known to resemble medieval torture devices, but dancers will swear by these machines that they are ‘the new yoga’. Known as the Gyrotonic Expansion System or the GSX, these machines take movements from dance, tai chi, yoga, gymnastics, and swimming for an all around fitness experience. They work towards the improvement of balance, flexibility, as well as muscle strength, with a variety of fancy tension cords and pulleys.

These are just a look at a few new fitness trends for 2010! Stay tuned for more new and innovative ways to working out with fitness.com! Happy New Year!