DUMB BELLS

No, I was not making social commentary as I usually do, this article is about fitness and resistance exercises.  It is  incontrovertible that some from of fitness activity is necessary for a healthy life.  What form that takes is up to you.  The best overall fitness activity is taking a long brisk walk with some friends.  All you need is a comfortable pair of walking shoes or sneakers, and if you do not wish to be arrested for indecent exposure, I recommend some clothes.  TV advertising tries to get you to buy some fancy-schmancy product or other that will magically get rid of all manner of physical imperfections from thunder thighs to muffin top. There is no form of exercise that targets a particular area of the body to spot reduce.  For a person to reduce a large bedonkydonk (country and western term) or booty, overall weight or fat loss is needed.  Of course you can always change your name to Kardashian and celebrate it.  Same goes for waist lines, and beer bellies.  You can do sit-ups 'til next year and your "spare tire" will remain as long as your body fat percentage remains the same.  Those people with six pack abs got them from being slender not using the magic gut-buster wonder chair.

Pure weight loss is not desirable if you lose as much muscle as you do fat.  Ideally, changing the body fat percentage in the direction of leanness is preferred even if your weight remains the same (assuming you are in a normal range), you will be healthier and more attractive.  To do this it takes more than starving oneself or eating Nutrasystem or similar foods (which have their place).  A fitness activity that has the potential to increase muscle strength and size and reduce the fat content of the body works for two reasons.  Muscles are more dense and take up less space than fat, and when you have more muscularity, these muscles require more calories to keep them alive than fat which sits there like a cactus in a clay pot requiring little or no attention.  Muscles burn calories day and night even when they are not being used.  Women, don't worry, you won't bulk up doing weight lifting exercises unless you consider Michelle Obama's arms "Bulked-up." If that is the case and you are offended by Mrs. O's sleeveless dresses, stop reading and go to Ben and Jerry's.

Those grotesque muscle magazine men and women have done everything they can to look that way.  They reduce their body fat content to dangerous levels (we need body fat to survive) work out incessantly, and take performance enhancing drugs and supplements in most cases. They think it looks good to have veins standing out everywhere like a 3-D road map. If that is not for you and you just want to feel better and look better, in addition to being involved in some sport like tennis or swimming if you wish, and taking the aforementioned long walks, a few "resistance" exercises might be a good idea.  They can be done without any weights at all by doing push-ups, chin-up, deep knee bends, and let's not forget the most important of all...putting down the fork and pushing yourself away from the dinner table before the second helping.  But I digress.  The photo at the top of this article is of a pair of dumb bells.  They are inexpensive and easy to operate.  A hat is also easy to operate and yet we see folks everywhere who can't figure out that the bill or brim goes in the front so I will briefly explain about weights and resistance.  First of all, I am not talking about political resistance I refer to resistance against gravity.  A dumb bell weighs from one pound to 100 pounds or more and you pick the weight to use based upon the exercise you are doing and how easy the dumb bell is for you to lift.  If you can only lift it once it is too heavy.  If you can lift it 50 times it is too light. Somewhere in between is the weight for you for that exercise.  I will help you figure that out  In the next article I will tell you more about why resistance is good.  In the mean time, it is also good to have "sales" resistance when it comes to giving your credit card number to the TV hucksters selling you the latest gizmo that they imply will make you look like the supermodels on their advertisement, become popular, have great sex, and drive a BMW.