If you’ve watched any golf on the television you’ve no doubt heard the commentator’s mention golf training. It’s no secret that 95 percent of professional golfers are doing some for of golf fitness training.

If there livelihood depends on their performance and they are participating in golf training, why wouldn’t amateur golfers do the same? The golf swing is one of the most physically demanding movements on the human body of all sports.

Swinging a three and a half foot long implement at upwards of 100 mph, while maintaining balance, stabilization and proper swing mechanics is very difficult. I don’t think I have to convince you of that do I?

The “only” way to be able to accomplish this is by improving the strength AND flexibility of your golf muscles. What’s the simplest way to do this? I can tell you not on a machine in your local gym.

Just take a look at the golf swing to realize it’s “on your feet” and bent at the waist. How could sitting in a machine help that? It can’t! You’ve got to do as many golf exercises as possible on your feet, involving balance, coordination, strength and flexibility.
You don’t even have to be a golf training specialist to come up with some creative golf exercises on your own.

How about making your golf swing while holding a single handweight? You can’t get anymore golf-specific than that. What about some exercise tubing (that’s inexpensive) attached to your door and make your golf swing? Another very golf-specific exercise.

You don’t need a gym membership to do any of these and many more golf exercises. Convenience of doing these exercises in your home saves time and money.

There is a lot of information (including books) showing golfers on machines in gyms. That’s not “golf-specific”, that’s “general fitness”.

If you want to improve your game quickly and easily, try doing these “in-home” golf training exercises. You won’t believe how quickly your body will respond and how you’ll be the LONGEST hitter in your foursome in no-time.

About the Author

About The Author: Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf fitness experts in the country, author of the Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide, and founder of several cutting-edge online golf fitness sites. Check out his new golf fitness products site at Perform Better Golf.

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About the Author

Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

Have you ever suffered those withdrawal symptoms, you know the ones you get when your beloved laptop is in the shop being repaired. It is now hard to imagine how I ever managed to get anything done, or to keep in contact with people before the arrival of the Internet.

The Internet has changed the world’s perception of belonging to a group and how we work, relax and enjoy our recreation. For a lot of people like me the Internet has changed my view of life, how I work and how I play.

Moving over to pay as you go mobile broadband late last year changed that perception again. It’s not as if mobile broadband is perfect; it does still have problems, such as periods of time when it is overcrowded and the connections slow right down.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get a signal at all if I am in a bad spot. Although to be honest I do not complain too much about these problems when I consider that in reality the fact that I can connect to the world while in the park or in a restaurant is an incredible achievement. And if there are teething problems with what after all is brand-new technology then I can live with that in return for the huge amount of pleasure and convenience that mobile broadband gives me.

First fishing trip with boat in 2004!!

Finally got my boat in the river for 2004. Launched from The FREE
ramp at the Cincinnati Public landing.
Checked out the spots that I was shown last October by a fishing
guide. With my depth finder saw how deep the holes were. I also
checked out another hole a guy told me about last week.
I caught 4 cats total 2 channels and 2 blues. the Channels were
3.6 and 2.7 pound. The one blue was 2.6 pounds. the baby blue was
about 7 inches long. It is good to see the blues having offspring so
there will be more blues in this section of the Ohio River in the
future.

I did have one of the hardest runs ever; that fish just had my
clicker running without stop. When I put my finger down to stop
the line it almost cut me. I was in 50 feet of water and I tighten
down my drag but it had little effect. he just stayed down and headed
down river. I set the hook and held on till I got him turned. I got
a couple turns of the reel and felt him and knew he was BIG!
Tightened the drag some more to get leverage to try to get him up off
the bottom. Had him for a few more turn before he wrapped me on some
type of sang! Never saw him for my line broke on the snag.

The rain came and I was stuck under a bridge waiting it out for 3
hours. My boat and motor checked out just fine . I now know about
the holes I had be wondering about all this season. Eager to head
back to those spots in the remaining weeks of this season. By the
way all the fish were caught on garlic salted chicken liver. Tight
lines nlcatfish

nlcatfish@fuse.net webmaster for Cincinnati Catfishing
www.cincinnaticatfishing.com
AND
SHOP WITHOUT DROPPING
www.cincinnaticatfishing.com/Shop1.html
Over700Bargins4YOU
www.bargins4tightbudgets.com

About the Author

Have been catfishing around the Downtown Cincinnati area of the Ohio River for over 40 years. Have gone catfishing to Lockport 5 times over the past 10 years. It is the greastest place to catch lots of huge channel catsfish in North America!!

Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuilders’ training regimes.

It is useful, therefore, to describe in detail the processes involved in actually doing these exercises. This will help beginners to start out using the correct techniques before moving on to potentially more dangerous heavy weights. If it also helps more experienced lifters to redress some of the little faults that have almost imperceptibly crept in over the years, all the better.

In this article we’ll take a close look at the stiff-leg deadlift.

MUSCLES TARGETED: gluteus maximus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, biceps femoris, erector spinae

STARTING POSITION

Grasp the bar with a closed pronated grip.
Grip should be roughly shoulder width.
Assume a hip width stance with the knees slightly flexed and the toes pointing straight ahead.
Stand erect with the bar touching the front of the thighs and the elbows extended.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow the torso to slowly flex forward and the bar to lower to the floor.
Keep the knees slightly flexed and the torso in a flat back position.
Lower the bar until the weights touch the floor.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Extend the hips and torso.
Keep the knees slightly flexed and the torso in a flat back position.
Repeat or finish set.

About the Author

Rick Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

In fitness, as in war, you want to be on the offensive, not the defensive and this means that rather than reacting to maladies as they occur, far better to be in good general physical condition; preventive maintenance is preferable to remedial effort every time. One general rule of thumb I use is energy is the basic coin of the fitness realm and without it is damned difficult to mount any kind of serious fitness effort.

To obtain energy to power through workouts is the first order of business: if you are tired all the time, exhausted by life and unable to get it together physically or psychologically, I would suggest two immediate lifestyle changes — cut back on the amount of food and begin walking every morning. Overeating is an energy-sapping culprit. Too many calories, particularly the wrong kind, the type that cause insulin to spike or the type of nutrient that converts easily to body fat, will drain energy faster then leaving the car door open all night and keeping the lights on. Early morning walking, particularly done out of doors, is invigorating. Plus early AM power walking elevates the basal metabolic rate. The rate at which the body oxidizes calories is kicked up by cardio in general and most particularly by cardio done on an empty stomach.

Another trick of the trade is to have a cup of coffee or a caffeine-laced tea before the cardio walk. Caffeine on an empty stomach taken in combination with exercise accelerates the mobilization of trans-fatty acids. After an all-night sleep/fast the body is low on glycogen, the emulsified form of carbohydrate, when aerobic activity is performed the body will burned stored body fat to fuel the cardio activity. If you ever travel to a hardcore bodybuilding gym early in the morning you’ll see all the hulking bodybuilders performing cardio. They are there to take advantage of this particular physiological anomaly and burn off body fat via pre-breakfast cardio.

In addition, hitting an aerobic-style exercise session before breakfast elevates to metabolism for hours after the conclusion of the session and elevating the heart rate in a systematic fashion improves heart and lung functionality and food digestion. Perhaps the strongest rationale for early morning cardio is that by doing it 1st thing it GETS DONE! Life has a way of throwing obstacles galore in our path as the day’s events unfold and by hitting a walk around the neighborhood 1st thing, daily events and cumulative fatigue will not derail the session. Start with a comfortable walk at a comfortable pace and add one minute per session. If you power walk five times a week and start off with a 10-minute session, at the end of a month the session will be up to 30-minutes.

At that point, 30 minutes five times weekly, keep the frequency and the duration and consciously seek to increase the intensity, i.e. walk faster. This creeping incrementalism eases you into the game. In conjunction with the walking, cut back on the caloric intake. After calories are reduced, clean up the food selection. Again all this flows together in a loose momentum building effort. More walking, early morning walking, fewer calories, better selection…your energy will skyrocket and the effort will unfold in a sane rational fashion. After a month or two, add in some progressive resistance training and you’ll be shot from a proverbial fitness cannon. The nice summer weather makes early outdoor walking a joyful experience and when we truly enjoy an activity we seek to repeat it — this melding of enthusiasm with exercise is the long-term secret to fitness success.

About the Author

arty Gallagher is a former Strength columnist for washingtonpost.com. Marty’s articles have been featured in Muscle Media, Muscle & Fitness, and Powerlifting USA magazines. His website, http://www.martygallagher.com, assimilates years of accumulated knowledge from the athletic elite and makes them accessible to the common person.

The use of credit and credit cards is today looked at as much as a necessity as a choice and therefore the selection of which credit card you choose to apply for and use is of the greatest importance.
With so many credit cards being offered to us today there are several factors that are worth considering before you make any application, remember that every time you make an application for a credit card, or any other form of credit, a mark against your credit score is made.

Your credit score is a universal indication, used by the credit industry as a whole, as an indication of your credit worthiness and will affect what credit and applications of credit you may be allowed in the future.
So before filling in any credit card applications first of all see what credit card offers are available and look not only at immediate benefits but how much interest you may be paying over the year on your outstanding credit balance.

Its interesting to note that some companies offer a differential rate of interest on new card purchases as opposed to credit card balance transfers, like wise different companies may charge you different interest rates for withdrawing cash from a credit card as opposed to using the credit card as a means of product purchasing.
With special interest introductory rates it is also of vital importance to look at what rate you will be required to pay after the initial reduced rate expires and your card reverts to the normal annual percentage rate, or APR.

Where credit card companies do look at making money is with late payment fees and with this in mind I would always suggest setting up a direct payment to the credit card company for the minimum monthly payment, remember you always have the option to make additional payments in order to reduce your monthly interest charge.

Credit is an important factor in today’s lifestyle for so many people so by choosing wisely in the first place and administering the balance on a weekly basis will pay dividends and will in fact allow you to use the credit facility to your benefit and not be a monthly nightmare.

About the Author

Copywrite 2005 Terry Till

http://www.credit-card-offer-deal.info

Your trampoline can be an expensive item, so it’s important to properly care for it. Here’s some useful tips :

* Don’t Let Kids sit/stand or play with the frame pads. The pad is a preventive in case the kids land too close to the frame.

* Don’t use chemicals to clean your frame pads.

* Don’t tie your pads too tight. In case of strong winds, it can pull up the pads and therefore pull out the straps if tied too tightly.

* If you have an enclosure, lift up the skirt where the poles are or cut out of the skirt area at the pole. If the pole lies against the skirt, there will be too much strain on the pads and can cause the skirt seams to rip.

* Keep all animals away from the trampoline. There’s something about dogs and pads and are very appealing to dogs!

How can trampolining be safer?

If your child already uses a trampoline, you should follow these safety measures.

Location of the trampoline and safety features:

Clear the area around the trampoline of objects and do not set the trampoline near trees, fences, poles, or other playground equipment.

Set the trampoline where an energy-absorbing surface (for example, tall grass) surrounds it. Buy and use a frame pad that covers the entire area of the spring system. If possible, lower the height to ground level by putting the trampoline in a pit.

Before using the trampoline:
Set rules for trampoline use and discuss them often with your children. Tell your children about the risks of not using the tramp properly. Have your children remove any necklaces.

Using the trampoline:

Have someone properly train your child how to do flips and other complex stunts. Never allow more than one person to use the trampoline at the same time. Do not allow bouncing followed by jumping off of the trampoline. Have an adequate number of spotters around the edges of the trampoline.

Follow these tips and you’re trampoline will be great fun… and safe.

About the Author: Jeb Taylor is a fitness guru. He works out on all exercise equipment he thinks will help him. Along with bikes and jogging, Jeb loves bouncing on a trampoline as a fun way to fitness.

Source: www.isnare.com

Beginner or Novice Golfers: Start with a “Pre-Owned” set of Golf Clubs

As a beginner or novice golfer, you want to avoid the expense of purchasing a “New” set of golf clubs, and concentrate your efforts on finding a good set of “Used” golf clubs (also know as “Pre-Owned”.)

Major golf club manufacturers introduce new lines of clubs almost every year. With the yearly advances in golf club technology, many golfers regularly upgrade their existing golf sets in pursuit of improving their game and lowering their handicap. This leaves the golf club market flooded with high quality, bargain sets of golf clubs. The trade-in market has become so huge, that a few major golf club manufacturers have launched their own sites to meet the demand, like “Callaway Golf” (www.callawaygolfpreowned.com.) The question is where, and how, do you find the best set of clubs for you?

Online is a great place to start. You want to get a feel for the market by comparing the prices of the “Pre-Owned” clubs offered by the thousands of sites advertising the sale of used clubs (Searching “Google” alone will bring up about 700,000 sites.) Surf a few sites and compare the quality and prices of numerous club sets. While you are on the internet, E-bay may also prove to be beneficial in searching for your set of used golf clubs. The selection and variety of clubs available changes daily, so you will have to keep a close watch to find the best deal for your golf clubs.

Also, you may want to look for a “Beginner” golf set, which usually consist of the #3, #5, #7, and #9 irons. Beginner sets of clubs normally include a “Wood” or two, and a “Putter” as well. At this point in your golf career, you really don’t need to purchase a “full” set of clubs. Mainly, because you may not be playing golf very long or very often. The best choice may even be a “Pre-Owned” beginner set of clubs. Don’t confuse a set of “Beginner” golf clubs with “Kids” golf clubs, which come in smaller sizes and/or lengths for kids. If you feel like you are bending over too far to swing the clubs, they are probably too short. You should be able to stand fairly straight, with your knees slightly bent, and your arms should hang freely as you grasp the club.

Your local newspaper is also a great place to look for a set of clubs. All year-round you will find bargains on some quality sets of golf clubs. This also gives you the opportunity to see and swing the clubs. It helps to get a feel for the clubs before you buy the set. Check out the condition of the grips, shafts (steel or graphite), and the club heads. Compare them to other clubs you have seen for the same price. Many people are selling some very nice clubs because they have either updated their own set of clubs, or have given up the game of golf.

Local golf stores and sporting goods stores are a good place to shop for a “Pre-Owned” set of golf clubs. Many are now accepting trade-ins, for new sets of clubs, and re-sale the use golf clubs at good prices. Many have an in-store practice tee or net for you to try the clubs before you buy them. Your nearest driving range or pro shop may also carry “Pre-Owned” sets. They might even give you a free bucket of balls while you try the clubs. They can also advise you on how the clubs fit your body type and swing.

Last, but not least, check with friends, relatives, co-workers, or any contact of yours (and your spouse if you have one.) Golf popularity is at an all time high, you might be surprised who you know that plays golf. Odds are, if they have been playing for awhile, they have an extra set or two in the garage that they might be willing to sale. They might even let you try them out for free, to see if you like the game. And wouldn’t that be the best bargain of all!

(Copyright 2005-ehbvi-www.golfgodz.com)

About the Author

Ernie Horning is business owner, and avid golfer. He also writes articles for www.golfgodz.com

This article was inspired by all those things customers do that really irritate bike shop owners and employees. I decided to create this list of commandments for you to follow.

1. Thou shall buy from nowhere before your local bike shop.

2. WD-40 shall not be applied as chain lube.

3. Keep frequent thy visits to the local bike shop.

4. Thou shall not park your Mercedes in front of the store and then attempt to haggle the price on a $350 bike.

5. Thou first bike may come from Wal-Mart, but that is it.

6. Thou wert never “just riding along.”

7. If thou wert “just riding along,” do not expect thou crumpled frame and bent wheels to be covered under warrantee.

8. Thou shall not request solid tubes or at least ask for them to be fixed.

9. If thou wish to get a good deal on a tube by talking to “Rick,” maybe you should just see Rich. (If you happen to be in Lincoln, Nebraska, that is.)

10. Thou shall not quote mail-order catalogs in the shop.

If you are a customer, don’t be offended, I am partly joking! What fun would a bike shop be without some funny/odd/amusing/stupid events every day?

Thanks go out to Bloom Bike Shop, The Bike Barn, and Bike Pedalers bike shops for their input.

About The Author

This article was written by Levi Bloom in 2004 and originally appeared on http://bloombikeshop.com. Check out his site for more bike and health related information.