It seems like a wacky way to lose weight, but it works.

Fitness Exercise Machine with Coins

The konbini coin-operated fitness exercise machine consists of two pedals that the aspiring fitness purchaser stands on. (In case you did not know, a “konbini” is a mom and pop convenience store. Some Konbini exercise models are switched on by the owner of the convenience store, instead of accepting coins.) The pedals move back and forth for 10 minutes, imitating the motion of an elliptical trainer or a Nordic track, only the machine provides the power, the buyer just has to stand on the machine and keep feeding it money.

The cost? Just $4 for 10 minutes. Convenient for people who have little time for a gym, or who do not want to invest in home equipment they know they’ll barely use. A worthwhile workout on this fitness vending machine in those ten minutes. You get a maximum workout when you combine tension overload and metabolic fatigue.

Getting Fit With Coin Operated Exercise Machine, Does It Work?

How do you get tension overload? This refers to working out a muscle until it gets really tired. You may not need to make every muscle in your body tired, but you need to have at least one muscle really needing a rest.

When you first start exercising, whether it’s on a coin-operated exercise machine or something a little more ordinary, this is not hard at all. Just step on the machine. The more out of shape you are, or the more you weigh, the harder you are going to work out to do even a little exercise. As you get more and more fit, you have to work out harder and harder, but when you first start, it is not hard to achieve tension overload.

Good Shape In 10 Minutes with this Wacky Exercise Machine?

Let’s be honest. This next part of getting into good shape—in just 10 minutes twice a week—isn’t the fun part.

To achieve metabolic fatigue, you need to work out so hard you feel a “burn” in your muscle. That isn’t because your muscle is literally on fire. It just feels like it is!

Metabolic fatigue is achieve by working a muscle so hard that it can’t get oxygen from the bloodstream fast enough to burn glucose for fuel. The muscle has to start making energy from the glucose stored inside its cells without oxygen.

This process generates lactic acid, which causes the “burning” feeling in our muscles. Eventually, the muscles clear the lactic acid away so they are ready to reshape and enlarge themselves.

Workout and Replenish Energy

Most people who do short and intense exercise routines forget the one thing that makes sure your muscles get bigger. After your workout, you have to eat!

Everybody knows that muscles need protein. You need some kind of complete balanced protein right after you work out, even for 10 minutes. This can come from a quick serving of meat, or a protein bar made from whey. If you are vegan or vegetarian, a soy bar also works just fine. But protein is not all your muscles need.

As hard as it may be to believe, right after you work out is the one time that a little bit of sugar is good for you. To get the energy to absorb the amino acids they use to build up their own proteins, every muscle needs a little glucose from the bloodstream. Right after a workout, muscles are 50 times more sensitive to sugar. They soak it right up.

However, the key word about sugar here is “little.” A single piece of fruit, a cup of yogurt or an energy bar containing no more than 10 grams of net carbohydrates (50 calories from sugar) is enough.

Try the Konbini Fitness Exercise Machine

Konbini exercise is something you need to try out if you ever go to Japan. In the meantime, just be sure to work out hard for at least 10 minutes, to the point of just a little muscle “burn.” (You don’t need to see literal flames.) Then follow up your exercise with a balanced snack containing carbohydrate and complete protein.

Give your muscles 48 hours to grow before you work them out again—and watch your fitness levels soar!

Have you tried this machine before? Leave your comment here….

Japanese Fitness Machine: Coin-Operated

These days, most of our jobs are confined to the use of a computer, or to a seat of a chair for long periods of time. We are not as physically active as we use to be unless you are a self-motivated individual that exercises daily. For those who would like to be self-motivated, but are unsure how to start let us consider how to lose weight walking.

Did you know? You can improve your health and lose weight walking.

It is recommended that people take an average 10,000 steps a day, even if you never leave your house. Consider all the walking you do, around the mall, around the house, etc. It’s an easy exercise to get you started into a healthy routine, and then gradually raising the bar and challenges at your comfort.

Walking Fitness Tips

-         Walk with weights. Dumbbells or Velcro 1 lbs weights and strap them to your legs.

-         Get a Pedometer. Count your steps, and then increase the number of daily steps you take gradually from 10,000.

-         Walk & more. While walking you can do other exercises to add on to your routine. Contracting your stomach muscles can help you exercise your tummy muscles and get you into the habit of walking around with a tight stomach. Next thing you know, you’ll be doing it out of habit. If you’re doing chores around the house, lifting the laundry basket is also a good workout for your arms and legs – just remember to bend from the knees, not the waist.

-         Stay hydrated. Walking is still exercise; help your body remove the toxins and fat from your body by staying hydrated.

Music. You’d be surprise at how much movement you will get out of your body when listening to music. Music is an emotional stimulant that can make us dance, increase or decrease our pace, and relax us.

Walking Fitness: Walking Weight Lose

A gal goes to the gym with a guy friend. She ends up doing the same sets of exercise and workout routines, but why is he losing weight and firming up better than her? It is a common bewilderment among women as to why men can gain weight – and then shed it off quickly. It is one of the main issues that make us women look at men with envy.

Compared to men, women are not as fortunate to lose weight as quickly and easily.  Why is that? Well, here are a few reasons why:

Biological. The male body has more muscles, compared to females. And muscles are what burn the calories, which makes you lose weight. By having less muscle, women end up having more fat cells – and we ultimately have to work the muscles we do have, harder to lose fat.

Hormones. A major contribution to the difference between man and woman, as hormones control our metabolism rate, and the storing of fat cells. It is natural for bodies to store fat as a survival feature, women are just programmed to store and hold more – especially during pregnancy. Reason being because a woman’s body was meant to bear children, and to provide them with food. Men, on the other hand were meant for hunting and gathering, and so, needed the muscle to endure the physical labor.

Did you know…though women have more fat and store more, we end up burning 300 more calories per day during pregnancy, and 500 more calories during breast-feeding.

Bad eating habits & poor lifestyle. These days our food is riddled with chemicals and preservatives – which end up being stored in our bodies and are harder to burn. Eating healthier foods with routine exercise is essential to a better lifestyle and losing weight successfully. Dieting is not an effective option. Improve your lifestyle and see positive result…

Why it’s harder for women to lose weight

Cardio is one of the best ways to slim down, because it gets your blood pumping and your metabolism going to help burn calories. There are many ways to get your daily cardio, it can be a daily run, or even casual walks. Reviews usually enjoy the workout while using the DVD.

Home Fitness Exercise Equipment

Air Climber, a new innovative piece for a home fitness exercise equipment, cardio workout. A stationed piece of fitness equipment, with pedals that is connected to an air pump, resistant settings, and hand pulleys to work your arms.

The Air Climber uses air pressure to exercise your muscles. Each step pushes their air from one pedal to the other, to keep your legs moving while reducing the impact on your joints. The continuous movement of your legs is stated to help get you fast results.

Air Climber Review

Cardio is actually the best way to lose weight. Because it gets your blood pumping, and your metabolism going to help burn calories. When you burn calories, you burn fat. I should think that if this is to be effective (and that goes for any workout) you have to make it a workout that counts. Casual stepping on this is good exercise nonetheless, but to see results better and faster, you have to put in the effort.

Workout Tip: For an effective workout routine that you can maintain on a regular basis, make it something fun and that you know you would enjoy. It motivates you better to stick with it.

Home Fitness Exercise Equipment: Air Climber

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A new innovative health gadget that, well, seems sister-gadget to the alcoholic breathalyzer, only this time it’s for your health. The Body Gem is a new gadget meant to be integrated into your weight loss and fitness lifestyle, by helping you determine your calorie intake.

Everyone is different in body size, in terms of height, weight, muscle mass, etc. A generic weight loss plan with size categories may not be the most effective method for determining your body’s needs. However, the Body Gem is promoting itself to be able to help you with your calorie calculation.

Metabolism Fitness Gadget: The Body Gem

The Body Gem is a Metabolism breathalyzer, which measures the rate that your body burns calories when you breathe into it. This information is then used to help determine a healthy weight loss or fitness program that would be suitable to your body.

This healthy gadget is to encourage the development of a healthy strategy to weight loss. A good way to lose weight is cutting down on excessive eating, which also includes junk food. Only consume enough calories from healthy foods that your body needs, along with regular exercise that would get your heart pumping, such as cardio.

Metabolism Fitness Gadget: The Body Gem

While we would all like to maintain our ideal weight and shape, choosing the right work out machine is one option people can conveniently shed pounds at home. With so many exercise machines out there, how do we start looking? And so I begin my “Top Ab Machine 2009” series. Review 5 ab workout machines for those who are feeling the weight of heavy feasting.

First up: Ab Lounge, an ergonomically and efficiently designed lawn chair to help people do full-on crunches easily.

How does the Ab Lounge work?

The fabric seating supporting your head, neck and back, while you work out your stomach muscles; and a digital counter tracks your progress. Movements of a crunch targets your abs, and you can adjust to work out the sides as well. A full on body workout requires movement of a butterfly motion, and pulling of strings.

Sit ups become easier with this machine as the chair’s design enhances the momentum of a crunch. If it does not require a lot of effort then just how effect is this machine?

Who should use Ab Lounge?

It may suit people who have back pain, or have difficulties doing a regular crunch. It is worrisome when watching the demos on the commercials; people lying back, bending pass the 180-degree mark of the spine. This could be problematic for those who are not as flexible as the models on television. All though, people with back problems have mentioned that the Ab Lounge has made working out easier for them; while, regular want-to-be-fit people have not seen any results and allow it to collect dust somewhere in the house. At least it folds nicely to rest in your closet, or under the bed where you know you’ll forget about it, and then remember it long after the return policy has run out.

Those with back problems, please check with your doctor before purchasing. People who are just wanting to get fit, there are other better, less expensive alternatives than this contraption.

Ab Lounge

In response to the annual festive feasting, many of us observe ourselves afterwards and are astounded by what seems to be pounds gained overnight. Then there is the never-ending cycle of getting the weight off in time for the holiday season, only to feast again, and then attempt to burn it off before summer hits.

A popular solution to slimming down are exercise machines, ab machines in particular as the stomach area is one of the most popular self-conscious body sections. But before we go spending dollars on workout machines that may be used once or twice in its life, be sure to take a read. Reviews on the top five ab machines of 2009 will be posted throughout the upcoming week, so no rush to buy. The holiday season is great for getting deals and discounts, it will be worth the wait while you determine what’s right for you.

Sneak-peek of some ab machine reviews to come:

Ab Lounge

Said to be more effective than the standard sit-ups. With different chairs for specific workouts, people have the option of exercising their whole body (Ab Lounge Sport), or just target their abs (Ab Lounge2). It offers support to your head, neck and back, while you work out your stomach muscles.

Ab Lounge Sport

Mastermoves

I saw this on the television show, Dragon’s Den, and thought that this was an interesting ab workout machine I had to include in my findings. Mastermoves is an ab workout program that includes, probably the most compact ab workout machine I’ve seen thus far. It uses something called a Master Disk, a wooden swiveling diskette, specifically designed to help twist away your fat and strengthen your core.

Mastermoves

Ab Coaster Pro

Its design is similar to those cardio bike machines, however this machine specifically forces you to use your core muscles to create momentum. The seat glides along a curved, inclined rail; and the seat swivels so you can easily go from working your front, to targeting your sides.

Ab Coaster

Back Stretcher & Ab trainer

This one is interesting, for people who have backaches. This fit machine allows users to lean back, stretching the back to alleviate back pain, and realign the spine for a better posture. Upon lowering yourself back down, that is where the abs is exercised.

backstretcher

B-Liner

A new ab & fitness machine that is said to make its great debut early-December 2009. This new workout gadget straight out of Asia is a manual, and portable device that can be used for the abs, or for an all-round body workout. Due to an agreement of momentary secrecy in exchange for primary blogging rights upon appearance, no more can be said at the moment

Please stay tuned for my complete reviews on the top ab machines of 2009!

I was chatting with a friend who is visiting from Japan and she was telling me how she loved the fact that here, she could eat as many bananas as she wanted. Naturally I had to ask, “why?” only to have her explain the latest dietary rage in Japan that, for the first time in history, leaves the supermarket shelves empty of the bananas.

History of Banana Diet

Originally created by a pharmacist in Osaka for her, and her husband who wanted a stress-free diet. Books have been published about this diet, and it does have a large following of successful stories, like diet plans usually have. While it could have been any fruit for the diet, bananas offer a lot of nutritional benefits and are great for starting up your metabolism in the morning.

Banana Nutritional Facts

Bananas are considered one of the healthiest fruits due to their excellent source of vitamins (A,B,C) and minerals. They’re high in potassium & iron, and low in sodium, a perfect food choice for people who need to reduce their salt intake, or who need a health booster.

Recommended Medical Symptoms

High blood pressure
Stomach problems
Heartburns
Constipation
Menstrual cycle issues (i.e. PMS)
Depression
Hangovers

-         and much more…

Banana Diet

Not to be considered the easy scapegoat to neglect a healthy lifestyle of eating right, with routine exercise.  For the North American wishing to test this new plan of action, please keep in mind that the eating habits and diets in general greatly differ between North American and Asian culture. In essence, the Japanese are healthier eaters than us by far, so this diet may work better for some, than others.

TIPS

1)      Morning: eat one (or as many bananas as you want), with a glass of warm water

2)      Eat anything you want for lunch and dinner (before 8pm). (A 3 o’clock snack is ok)

3)      No dessert after meals, and nay to junk food in general!

4)      Go to bed every night before midnight

Banana Diet