1. Pick a brand new, never before tried, exercise for each of these muscles.  Pecs, Lats, Shoulders, Quads and Hamstrings.  They can be gym exercises or at home and outdoor exercises.  Do these new exercises 3 times per week for the summer!
2. Try a new sport.  Choose something that you haven’t done for a long time, or maybe never.  Make it a plan to do that exercise 3 times per week for the summer for at least 30 minutes.
3. Turn off the TV.  With longer days there is more time to do outdoor things.  Leave the TV off until the sun goes down.  As the summer comes to an end and it cools off you will find that the added night makes more room for TV, but for now limit your boob tube tome.
4. Make a weekend event.  Each weekend try something out of your norm.  It does not have to be particularly active, maybe just go to a park, have a BBQ, or go to the YMCA and go for a family afternoon swim.  Make it fun!
5. Pick a focus.  Most people love something about the house that we live in that we love, like the grass or the garden.  Pick one thing that you work on making perfect each week.  For me I have a stockpile of crap stored next to the house between the house and the fence.  Each week I get closer and closer to making that usable space again.
6. Reward yourself.  Go out right now and buy yourself some skinny pants.  If you follow rules 1-5 for the next 10 weeks of summer then you earned those pants, and you will fit into them because of those healthy choices.  Don’t be shy about setting goals for yourself and then rewarding your effort!

If you have tried to lose weight before you can most likely attest to the FACT that weight loss can be hard.  But why is it so hard, because at its core it is an easy concept right?  You need to burn more calories than you eat and you will lose weight.  Right now I will teach you the facts behind the difficult issue of weight loss in the hopes that if you understand them then MAYBE you can take control of a few of them and take control of your weight.  If you are not ready to hear (read) some hard truths and not be insulted then DO NOT READ MORE, because this is the whole truth without consideration for how it will make you feel.

There are some exercises that you can skip, some that are good to do, and then there are some that absolutely must be in your program each week.  All exercises stimulate different things in your body, some stimulate calorie burn, some impact the metabolism to a greater degree and some increase hormone production.  These three stimulate all three responses, so whether you are trying to gain muscle, burn fat or just get in a little better shape you need to be doing these at a minimum once per week.  And the most beautiful thing about these exercises is that you can do them almost ANYWHERE!  Can’t make it to the gym today?  No problem, give me the time it would take to drive to the gym and back and you can still get results.

Do you twist, and then shout because of back or joint pain?

Most people ignore the horizontal/transverse plane when they train.  You shouldn’t.  When you do almost anything when you aren’t at the gym there is some twisting action.  Think about starting the lawn mower, picking up your kid or even unloading and loading the dishwasher.
By not being strong at twisting you are allowing your body to be easily injured when you actually twist under stress at home or at work.  This does not mean that you should go out and do a ton of twisting motions at the gym though.  There are some very important safety concerns when you twist the body, especially the spine.

What is the difference between a Fitness Enthusiast and a fit person and an unfit person?  What separates those people who never really seem to gain body fat from, well the rest of us?  What does is take to make that leap and not have body fat be a real concern?

Exercise is one of those things that hurts, even when you are not really working that hard, so it is really easy to skip the pain, and do that skipping as often as possible.  So how do those FREAKS, that we call Fitness Enthusiasts, who never seem to miss a workout do it?

First of all, for what ever reason that they make it over the threshold, they are addicted.  I don’t mean that they really like it.  I mean that they are physically addicted to working out, just like you can get addicted to drugs, tobacco or alcohol!  Remember that word “endorphin”?  You have most likely heard it before, and maybe even experienced it.  Endorphins are a chemical released when you achieve a certain level of exertion to mask the pain so that you can continue doing whatever crazy thing that you are doing.  Back in caveman days that would mean running for your life most likely, so it is a protective mechanism built into our body.  It is a very addictive chemical and fitness enthusiast is absolutely 100% addicted to this chemical.  So they aren’t working out like you do, they are getting their FIX!  That is why they never miss a workout, because they literally jonesing for ENDORPHINS.