If you’re a tech lover like me then chances are you probably own an iPhone.  There are over 100,000 applications in the app store for your iPhone, and many of them are related to helping you succeed at your health and fitness goals.  I’ve gathered a list of the best health and fitness iPhone apps for you to try out.  Some are free, and some cost a small amount of money.  All of the apps listed are definitely worth your time, as they are very useful in keeping your health and fitness goals on track.

Lose It! – Free

Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget that enables you to meet them. Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise and staying within your budget. Enter food and exercise easily using a searchable database. Quickly re-enter foods and meals you’ve had in the past. Lose It! is the most complete and streamlined weight loss application available for the iPhone.

Restaurant Nutrition – Free

The Restaurant Nutrition application allows a user to easily view nutritional information about restaurant menus and track what they have eaten. The Restaurant Nutrition user can turn on diets to track calorie carbohydrates, protein, and fat to help track and quantify their dieting progress.

iFitness – $1.99

iFitness is a personal trainer for your iPhone that teaches, encourages, and tracks your progress from start to finish.  It features video demonstrations, over 2300 exercise and stretching routines and the ability to design your own workout.

Gym Buddy – $2.99

Gym Buddy is an easy to use, completely adaptable workout log. Define your exercises, plan your workouts, and log your sets by repetitions, weight, time & notes.

RunKeeper – Free

RunKeeper is an iPhone application that enables you to use the built-in GPS in your iPhone 3G to track all of your outdoor fitness activities, including duration, distance, pace, speed, elevation, calories burned, and path traveled on a map. You can store all of your historical activities on the RunKeeper website and share them with your friends!

I hope these fitness applications will help you stay on track with your fitness goals as they have for me.

Do you know of any other iPhone fitness apps that should be added to this list? Let us know in the comments!

Popularity: 17% [?]

Men’s Fitness published an interesting article that lists ten foods that most people hate, but are actually good for you.  Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, and Turnips made the list, which are definitely some of my top hated foods.  All of the foods listed include a variety of health benefits. Very good read.

Check out the most common “ick” foods that are actually incredibly good for you here.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Are you planning on taking a vacation this summer? Read on to find out how to stay fit during vacation.

Holidays are the time to relax, laze around and take a break from your normal daily routine. It not only helps in breaking monotony but it is also a time where your food habits and workout routines can go haywire and you may end up gaining unwanted weight in your body. In order to refrain from putting on these excess kilos, you can take some simple conscious steps and still make your holiday comfortable.

Try to stay fit during the holiday and continue light workout routines in your hotel fitness room. Even if you cannot exercise regularly, do not miss a chance when you can work out. You can do crunches, sit ups and push ups anywhere as you do not need any equipment. Take walks around the place you stay and enjoy the evening breeze. Try participating in at least one walking tour once a week around the place you stay.

If you are planning to stay fit on vacation, try to visit the beach, you can go for a good swim or if you are staying in a resort do not miss using the pool at least for half an hour. Go for a quick jog in the morning so that you feel energetic and fresh during the day and you can get the best out of the morning breeze.

You can also include outdoor fun activities like trekking, rock climbing, kayaking during your holiday and enjoy the scenic beauty. This would definitely take care of your exercise routine and stay fit on vacation.

Try taking a conscious decision against a lot of high calorie meals during your travel. A big meal can spoil your sleep which can also result in gaining weight. In case you are planning for a heavy meal, it should be during lunch and not during dinner.

When you are attending parties of gatherings, you can opt for nutritional delicacies including salads and vegetables. Do not over indulge yourself in junk food delicacies that are not quite desirable in your diet plan, you can consume small portions rather than consuming a full plate. You can also enjoy low-fat gravies. Increase the amount of vegetables on your plate rather than the fatty stuffing. Moderate your desserts by choosing non-dairy and fat-free topping. In order to not concentrate too much on the food, you can spend time with some wonderful people you like and cherish the time with them.

It is highly recommended to avoid alcohol as much as possible as it adds a lot of calories to your body. You can increase your meal content to keep yourself full rather than consume alcohol. Drink lots of water throughout the trip.

Try and avoid erratic meal routine, to stay fit during holidays and plan your food routine ahead when you travel. Carry some healthy snacks along with you so that you can avoid overeating in case you skip a meal. You can have fruits and fibrous foods to maintain healthy stomach.

Lastly, enjoy what you eat and do not get into the deprivation mode. You should not end up craving for enjoyment and not really experiencing a holiday in a true sense by restricting yourself too much.

Click here to learn fat burning secrets from the worlds best body builders and fitness models

Popularity: 36% [?]

Cardio exercises can help you in maintaining a healthy heart and also tone your body to lose weight.

The most popular cardio exercise is running. This is one of the most inexpensive and simple cardio exercise that can be done anywhere without special equipments. You just need good running shoes and also appropriate clothing to match the weather. Running helps you to burn a lot of calories especially on hills and sprinting landscapes. You need to warm up with a 5 – 10 minute stretching exercise followed by a 5 minute walk and then jog for 10 minutes before you start your run. You can avail special marathon training to run for long distances. You can also choose short distance running where you can maintain better speed. While you end the run, you jog for the last 2 – 3 minutes, then walk slowly and stop.

Boxing is one of the best cardio exercises, concentrating on various important muscle groups. You need to perform warm up exercises for 5 – 10 minutes. This is followed by basic resistance endurance exercises for another 10 minutes. Then, you perform 5 minute drilling exercises where you do punches and defense exercises. While you do the boxing workout, slowly increase the boxing intensity by punching different weight bags. You may need to take 5-minute breaks in between to stabilize heart beat. Make sure you wear good boxing shoes and also heavily padded gloves while performing this workout.

Swimming is another excellent cardio exercise where you can concentrate on various part of the body and muscle groups by performing the different strokes like freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. You start swimming with a warm up exercise of 250 – 400m. Then you do a balancing drill. You can pause every 25m to improve your balance inside water. A typical beginner workout involves swimming for about 2000 – 2500m. At the end of the swimming workout you can do a combination of the three strokes mentioned above, rest for a minute and again do some easy swim strokes for the last 150m to end your exercise routine for the day. A good swimsuit with goggles will make your workout routine comfortable. It is better that you start slowly in the beginning and do good warm up exercises before increasing the intensity of the workout. Swimming reduces the risk of various diseases like strokes and diabetes. A 30 – 60 minute workout is a good start for beginners.

Power walking is one of the best cardio exercises recommended for people including senior citizens. You are advised to wear good rubber shoes when you do this workout. This workout helps in maintaining good pulse rate and also burns excess fat in the body. You need to warm up by easy walking for 5 – 10 minutes and perform stretching exercises for another 5 minutes. Then you can increase the pace of walking and reach a heart rate up to 70% of your maximum recommended heart rate.

Ashtanga Yoga is another popular cardio exercise involving traditional yoga postures with aerobic moves. This cardio routine involves breathing exercises, increasing the body energy by awareness and strengthening the abdomen.

Click here to learn how to burn you body fat and build your muscle

Popularity: 37% [?]

Chest workouts help in building the chest muscles which is very critical for a body building physique. The best chest workouts help in the development of complete chest with a clear separation of lower, middle and upper chest muscles. It is also strengthens the rib cage.

Chest comprises of large muscle groups and is broadly divided into two portions – pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. Pectoralis major is the bigger muscle attaching to upper arm from collar bone to the sternum. Under this muscle, pectoralis minor, a triangular shaped muscle, is found. These chest muscles help in flexion, rotation and adduction.

The large chest muscles allow you to handle weight and also burn excess calories. While working out your chest, you exercise your shoulder as well as arms. In addition, the chest workout routine also is a warm up of several smaller muscular groups in our body.

There are two types of chest workouts. The first type is called presses involve triceps and deltoid muscles and weights are pushed away from the chest during the exercise routine. Flyes is the second type of chest workout where the extended arms are brought towards the chest center. These two workouts are performed at different angles for the overall development of the chest muscle.

Chest exercises should be ideally performed twice a week with 2 to 3 days rest in between the workout routines. Some of the best chest workouts include chest flies, chest presses and also pushups. You need to perform a variety of these exercises and also vary your workout routines. The chest press exercise is targeted at the major chest muscles, shoulders and also the triceps. Push ups lay emphasis on arms and chest in addition to targeting on many other muscles in the body. Chest flies works on primarily the outer portion of the chest.

For an effective chest workout routine, you need to perform good warm up exercises. This would ensure circulation of blood in the chest area preparing it for the physical exertion. Beginners should concentrate on building the size of the chest muscle as the first step. The motion should be different ranges for a good muscle development as good muscular contraction yields better results. You also need to occasionally stretch the chest muscles in between the workouts. You should also not perform triceps exercises before chest exercises.

Once you build the muscle size, you can concentrate on building the shape of the chest and also focus on the overall development. In addition to the basic chest exercises mentioned above you can also include other chest workouts like pullovers, cable crossovers, dips, burn out sets and supersets. In case you have a weak chest, you need to take up priority or weak point training.

For getting the best results of chest workouts, you need to concentrate on good well balanced nutritious diet. Also, you need to work out on balancing your muscles and involve the rest of your body while performing the strenuous routines. Extreme care should be placed on postures in order to avoid muscle imbalances.

Click here to check out the #1 rated muscle building program on the Internet

Popularity: 37% [?]

The biceps muscles are vital for the flexibility of the elbows, forearms and also the shoulders. These muscles help in turning your arm in and out of your body.

Best bicep workout routines consist of activating the vital muscles by bringing the forearm and upper arm close together under resistance. While choosing weights for working out your biceps, you need to be very careful as the biceps muscles are small. You cannot use heavy weights like in the case of chest and the back exercises. Since the workout routines of your back and chest also involve exercising your biceps, intense workouts of your biceps on a daily basis would not work well for your body.

While you workout your biceps, also focus on other muscle groups. In a single workout routine, a maximum of two biceps exercises can be carried out. You need to work out on your biceps just once or twice a week and take rest in the days in between before repeating.

Some of the best biceps workouts involve pulling exercise routines where you generally curl your hands towards your shoulders. You may also work on your forearms by performing wrist curls. Dumbbells, cables, resistance bands, barbell and bicep workout machines are available to aid you for performing the exercises.

While working out your biceps, choose weights which you handle and not heavy weights which would tire you very soon. Also, vary the intensity (of weights) and the volume (number of reps) to get best results and enable you to recuperate from the tiring workout routine days. Focus on the quality of muscle workout than the quantity of exercises performed.

One of the best bicep workouts is called Biceps curls. This is one of the most popular exercises where you hold weights placing your elbow next to your body and your palms facing out. You curl the weight towards your shoulders. The variations of traditional curls include concentration and preacher curls which add a new intensity level to the bicep exercises. Hammer curls offer challenging movements and hence you need to use lighter weights to perform the workout.

The standing barbell curl is an example of a compound biceps exercise where you pile the weights and use your forearms and biceps to lift them. This can help you in developing tank arms and also exercises all the muscles on your biceps and forearms.

The alternating rotating dumbbell is another simple biceps workout exercise which helps in focusing on maximal intensity workout on each arm separately in alternating cycles.

The cable curl workout with rope handle helps in building huge arms. It concentrates on the arm flexors and emphasizes on exercising the biceps. This exercise also allows you to maintain constant tension.

The supinated bent over rows workout is another exercise which helps in gaining biceps mass. The close grip chin ups exercise also helps in building biceps mass. You need to keep your hands together and focus on your biceps to lift your body. This is different from a pull up which exercises your back and also your arm.

Click here to check out the #1 rated muscle building program on the Internet

Popularity: 36% [?]

Gyms and workouts are all the rage nowadays. People have become quite health conscious these days on account of greater awareness of the pitfalls and dangers of obesity. This is indeed a worldwide phenomenon which is not just limited to the shores of the USA. People are now so particular about their workouts and going to the gym, following strict exercise and diet regimes in a bid to be fit and fine. Now, one of the recurring questions that some gym goers have is “What food should I eat after a workout?”

The basic objective of any fitness regime is to lose extra calories, burning fat and building muscle tone in order to be fit and fine. If you are following an aerobic exercise regime, you will certainly experience heightened burning of calories and some dame to tissues also. There has been a lot of research into this and it is quite clear that you should be eating something around 45 minutes after the workout gets over. This is the golden period when the muscle replenishes the used up or burnt glycogen that is required for healthy energy utilization by the body. This period is essentially 45 minutes to an hour after the workout, which means that just after the workout do not ingest anything because the metabolism of the body has been heightened by the rigors of the workout and you should not be burdening your body with extra digestive processes.

While there is no problem in having water after half an hour of workouts, you should have food to eat after a workout like some carbs as well as proteins, but fats are a strict ‘no no’. The reason for avoiding fats is that fats slow down digestion which is just the opposite of what you require for health. What you need is a healthy whey protein shake along with some liquid. Consuming whole proteins like chicken, tuna or egg whites are also not ideal because these need a lot of time to digest. The whey protein shake assimilates and gets digested much faster as it is liquid and also reaches the bloodstream much faster. Around the world, a whey protein shake is the official protein shake for post workout food. People generally consume around 20-50 grams of this, but around 30 grams is ideal for starts.

Carbs are essential for the body to build up the muscle glycogen. The body contains glucose in the blood stream and glycogen in the muscles which are the storehouse of energy for the body’s needs. In case the body does not get glucose or carbohydrates for its needs it will start breaking the muscle glycogen. Again if you eat whole carbs like brown rice or wheat bread, it would slow down the digestion, whereas a baked potato may do the trick. Again, what has been found ideal is a type of sugar called dextrose that is assimilated quickly and directly into the bloodstream and serves the purpose ideally.

Now that you have learned about what food should you eat after a workout, you can go ahead armed with this knowledge for an optimal workout.

Click here to learn how to burn you body fat and build your muscle

Popularity: 37% [?]

The Wii fit is an innovative weight loss kit which claims to reduce excess weight of individuals effectively in a very easy method. Is it really true? Does the wii fit help you lose weight? The journey of burning out the extra calories involves lot of fun filled activities which makes it a motivating factor. This kit would prove to be very useful for individuals who have the sincere intention of losing weight and are willing to put their best efforts on the same.

There are a variety of suggestions which have been presented in the kit. They are worth trying and if you successfully follow the instructions given for the activities and exercises, you are sure to experience a great workout session. Otherwise, if you are just pressing the controls on the screen, you can only view the results on screen and not on your body.

You can lose weight using the Wii fit. The running and step aerobics activities are quite interesting. You can unlock “Free Step” once you master the advanced level. Wiimote announces the number of steps you have completed and also the details about how long you still have to go. However, you also have the option to silence and step at a pace that is convenient to you. In this case, you cannot follow the recommended beat but you can still know how many steps you have done. Similarly, when you unlock free run, you can mention how long you would want to run for and also use the tool to creatively measure various other activities. You can also perform great strength exercises coupled with yoga. The sit up sessions are quite challenging.

Hula hoop definitely sends your heart beat racing and also causes sweat. The rhythm boxing exercise is a great warm-up. After a while, the pattern becomes monotonous but the interesting mix up gives variety and makes every workout experience quite different and fulfilling.

However, the wii fit also has its share of criticisms. Though working out an exercise routine with the wii kit is definitely a challenge, unlocking the variety of activities and exercises is not too difficult as Wii fit reveals the results too early. In addition, you do not have downloadable activities.

In addition, some of the blunt messages and terminologies used by the software are quite discouraging and it could have a negative psychological effect on the minds of the people.

Also, some of the diet and nutrition experts have reported that lose weight using the Wii fit will not help lose the body mass index (BMI) and the software is quite misleading, but it may help an individual to be healthier and increase metabolism levels. The best way to keep a body fit is to exercise well and to consume a low calorie highly nutritious balanced diet with fibrous food and also a lot of water.

Another controversy about the kit is the claim that it is cheaper than visiting a nearby gym. This is not an acceptable argument since daily workouts in a gym on a regular basis would definitely yield great results. In fact, if the gym also has a swimming pool, you are quite lucky as it would give a one-stop opportunity to work on every muscle without getting sun burnt.

Buy a Wii Fit Today!

Click here to learn fat burning secrets from the worlds best body builders and fitness models

Popularity: 48% [?]

Should I eat before the gym or after the gym? This is a question that many gym goers ask and wonder about. The main objective of going to the gym for most people is to lose weight. This is understandable considering the fact that obesity is the worldwide bane of so many millions of people who have accumulated fat and need to lose the extra kilos fast. But the issue of eating before the gym or eating after the gym is something that intrigues many. It is quite clear that the quality of your workout does depend on what you ingest and when you choose to do it, hence this query is not only valid but also crucial for the health and wellbeing of gym goers.

It is quite clear that scientists say that one should eat something before you go to the gym. This is because the body really needs some energy to be at its optimal level before you go for the workout. When you sleep at night, the calorie intake is nil and all that you may have ingested for 8-10 hours is some water which is 0 calorie. A lot of people go to the gym on an empty stomach, which is quite a mistake. This is because an exercise regime demands the flow of your blood through the bloodstream and also requires energy. If you have no energy source in the form of glucose, the body could withdraw energy from the glycogen in your muscles, leaving you tired and enervated.

What and how much you eat before the workout is also important, as you cannot also have a full 3 or 4 course meal before the workout because that would consume a lot of activity and effort in digestion which otherwise could have been used in the workout. This diminishes the efficacy of your workout. So be careful as to what you eating before the gym. You cannot really miss out on eating at least a couple of hours before the workout and expect to be fit. It’s really a myth that you can skip eating and burn more calories, because your body is not made that way at all. Working out on a grumbling stomach is like trying to run a car on very less fuel.

Researchers are also clear that eating after the gym is essential. This is because the body needs energy and nutrients to repair any damage to tissues that may occur during the workout. You also expend huge amounts of energy during the workout. This may often leave you drained and exhausted. It is recommended by doctors that you eat within 45 minutes of your workout. This is the golden hour period when your muscles replace the glycogen levels and get rejuvenated most effectively. Also, it is very important to re-hydrate the body as you would have lost a lot of body fluids through sweating it out in the gym.

So now you have the answer to the question, “Should I eat before the gym or after the gym?” The answer obviously is BOTH.

Click here to learn about a no nosense way to build muscle

Popularity: 81% [?]

Across the world, there are millions of people who are desperate for losing weight. This is because there are so many people who have been leading unhealthy lifestyles, which include ingestion of fatty foods and inadequate exercise regimes. This has led to the mushrooming of gyms and fitness clinics across the USA and also across the globe, as millions of people hit their gyms early in the morning or in the evening in a bid to get fit, lose weight and become smart. However, before going for workouts it’s necessary to take a look at the best food before the gym.

A lot of people go to their workouts without eating. Some of these people perhaps are so busy that they do not have enough time to eat. On the other hand, there are also a set of people who do not eat before gym workout deliberately. They are under the impression that if they fast they will hasten the fat losing process, which is not exactly true. Under times of siege, the body in fact retains calories and prevents weight loss.

It’s quite a proven fact that to get the best way to maximize the gains from your workout is to have food to eat before the gym and your exercise regime. If you are starving, your body will indeed impact the level of your fat reserves and also your energy levels. This will come in the way of your exercise workouts and leave you very tired and exhausted. It does make sense to have food when you are going to the gym. This is because the extra calories will give you a lot of extra energy to optimally perform your exercises.

What food to eat before the gym workout session is also important? Just because we say that you need to eat before a workout does not mean that you will eat a full course meal just prior to the workout. If you eat too much before the exercise, the body would send the blood flow to the stomach in a rush while the blood is also trying to flow to the muscles during the workout, which is not ideal in the least. Do remember that the body takes around 4-6 hours to digest fat, 2-3 hours to digest proteins and about 2 hours to digest carbohydrates so do not overload your system with too much food.

It is advisable to have a balanced meal of some carbohydrates, protein and fat 4 hours before the workout and just before the workout have some light carbohydrate snack closer to when the exercise begins. If you have just 3 hours before the workout, have some lighter meal and cut down on the fat and the protein intake. If you have 15 minutes to half an hour before the workout, you can have an energy drink to tide you over the gym session.

So now that you know the best food before the gym, you can go ahead and enjoy a meaningful and calorie-burning workout.

Click here to learn fat burning secrets from the worlds best body builders and fitness models

Popularity: 44% [?]