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itssmithlove · 5 years

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I've eaten it before when not too strong

I've eaten it before when not too strong and not gotten sick, but I usually just dump it and take the receipt back to get my money returned.. The questions are fair: These residents of Broadway Place saw their lives changed on the merits of being in the right place at the right time.. He should not have Kalmring half of their shared assets.. Police at the time said charges would not be filed against the woman who allegedly stabbed Allgood, because it was in self defense. Don't be shy and feel free to say hello if you see her around! You may see her running outside (when it's above 30 degrees), drinking coffee somewhere, enjoying the sunshine when it's out, or trying something new to eat. University of Houston is the leading institution. Vets felt they were meeting with limited success because vets and farmers may be emphasising different framings of biosecurity. Where is the NZ voice in this? Is our water supply so infinite that ONE bottling plant can take 70 million litres every day? 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There may be an element of coincidence in all this, but, I think, in a more profound sense, we have the coming together, or the beginning of the coming together, of a number of social and cultural processes. But Wade stopped short of admitting his side had turned a corner after declaring they weren't good enough to win the competition four weeks ago. Mutombo does make up for Ratliff's absence though. While we occasionally listen in on chat groups, coach outlet clearance or look at the posting in our discussion coach outlet online groups or on our bulletin boards, we take no responsibility and assume no liability for the content of those locations or for any mistakes, defamation, libel, slander, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography, or profanity you might encounter when you visit such places on our site. When I lived in the Midwest I found the people to be the most difficult to understand. 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You can find quizzes with quirky facts, science and nature, or entertainment. Family and friends held a vigil Saturday for a barber killed in a shooting in Hawthorne as the search continued for his attacker, who also shot and wounded another person. And time is of the essence, since tsunami waves travel at speeds of up to 800kmh, depending on the depth of the water.. The Knights dominated the first half, opening the scoring through Tyler Harrison in the sixth minute, adding a second from Nick Naden and only denied more by the agility of Olympic keeper Jarrod Hill. The Post has previously documented claims from six people in addition to the five arrested in Australia who alleged that while Pastukhov was an editor at Vice he offered them money to carry suitcases to Australia.

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blackkudos · 6 years

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Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For five decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz.

Biography

Early life

Jamal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began playing piano at the age of three, when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to duplicate what he was doing on the piano. Jamal began formal piano training at the age of seven with Mary Cardwell Dawson, whom he describes as greatly influencing him. His Pittsburgh roots have remained an important part of his identity ("Pittsburgh meant everything to me and it still does," he said in 2001) and it was there that he was immersed in the influence of jazz artists such as Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner. Jamal also studied with pianist James Miller and began playing piano professionally at the age of fourteen, at which point he was recognized as a "coming great" by the pianist Art Tatum. When asked about his practice habits by a New York Times critic, Jamal commented that, "I used to practice and practice with the door open, hoping someone would come by and discover me. I was never the practitioner in the sense of twelve hours a day, but I always thought about music. I think about music all the time."

Beginnings and conversion to Islam

Jamal began touring with George Hudson's Orchestra after graduating from George Westinghouse High School in 1948. He joined another touring group known as The Four Strings, which soon disbanded when the violinist, Joe Kennedy. Jr., left. He moved to Chicago in 1950 (where he legally changed his name to Ahmad Jamal), and played on and off with local musicians such as saxophonists Von Freeman and Claude McLin, as well as performing solo at the Palm Tavern, occasionally joined by drummer Ike Day.

Born to Baptist parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jamal did not discover Islam until his early 20s. While touring in Detroit (where there was a sizable Muslim community in the 1940s and 1950s), Jamal became interested in Islam and Islamic culture. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1950. In an interview with The New York Times a few years later, Jamal said his decision to change his name stemmed from a desire to "re-establish my original name." Shortly after his conversion to Islam, Jamal explained to The New York Times that he "says Muslim prayers five times a day and arises in time to say his first prayers at 5 am. He says them in Arabic in keeping with the Muslim tradition."

He made his first sides in 1951 for the Okeh label with The Three Strings (which would later also be called the Ahmad Jamal Trio, although Jamal himself prefers not to use the term "trio"): the other members were guitarist Ray Crawford and a bassist, at different times Eddie Calhoun (1950–52), Richard Davis (1953–54), and Israel Crosby (from 1954). The Three Strings arranged an extended engagement at Chicago's Blue Note, but leapt to fame after performing at the Embers in New York City where John Hammond saw the band play and signed them to Okeh Records. Hammond, a record producer who discovered the talents and enhanced the fame of musicians like Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie, also helped Jamal's trio attract critical acclaim. Jamal subsequently recorded for Parrot (1953–55) and Epic (1955) using the piano-guitar-bass lineup.

At the Pershing: But Not For Me

The trio's sound changed significantly when Crawford was replaced with drummer Vernel Fournier in 1957, and the group worked as the "House Trio" at Chicago's Pershing Hotel. The trio released the live album, Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me, which stayed on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks. Jamal's well known song "Poinciana" was first released on this album.

Perhaps Jamal's most famous recording and undoubtedly the one that brought him vast popularity in the late 1950s and into the 1960s jazz age, At the Pershing was recorded at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago in 1958. Jamal played the set with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier. The set list expressed a diverse collection of tunes, including "The Surrey with the Fringe On Top" from the musical Oklahoma! and Jamal's arrangement of the jazz standard "Poinciana". Jazz musicians and listeners alike found inspiration in the At the Pershing recording, and Jamal's trio was recognized as an integral new building block in the history of jazz. Evident were his unusually minimalist style and his extended vamps, according to reviewer John Morthland. "If you're looking for an argument that pleasurable mainstream art can assume radical status at the same time, Jamal is your guide," said The New York Times contributor Ben Ratliff in a review of the album.

After the recording of the best-selling album But Not For Me, Jamal's music grew in popularity throughout the 1950s, and he attracted media coverage for his investment decisions pertaining to his "rising fortune". In 1959, he took a tour of North Africa to explore investment options in Africa. Jamal, who was twenty-nine at the time, said he had a curiosity about the homeland of his ancestors, highly influenced by his conversion to the Muslim faith. He also said his religion had brought him peace of mind about his race, which accounted for his "growth in the field of music that has proved very lucrative for me." Upon his return to the U.S. after a tour of North Africa, the financial success of Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me allowed Jamal to open a restaurant and club called The Alhambra in Chicago. In 1962, The Three Strings disbanded and Jamal moved to New York City, where, at the age of 32, he took a three-year hiatus from his musical career.

Return to music and The Awakening

In 1964, Jamal resumed touring and recording, this time with the bassist Jamil Nasser and recorded a new album, Extensions, in 1965. Jamal and Nasser continued to play and record together from 1964 to 1972. He also joined forces with Fournier (again, but only for about a year) and drummer Frank Gant (1966–76), among others. Until 1970, he played acoustic piano exclusively. The final album on which he played acoustic piano in the regular sequence was The Awakening. In the 1970s, he played electric piano as well. It was rumored that the Rhodes piano was a gift from someone in Switzerland. He continued to play throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in trios with piano, bass and drums, but he occasionally expanded the group to include guitar. One of his most long-standing gigs was as the band for the New Year's Eve celebrations at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., from 1979 through the 1990s.

Later career

In 1986, Jamal sued critic Leonard Feather for using his former name in a publication.

Clint Eastwood featured two recordings from Jamal's But Not For Me album — "Music, Music, Music" and "Poinciana" — in the 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County.

Now in his eighties, Ahmad Jamal has continued to make numerous tours and recordings. His most recently released albums are Saturday Morning (2013), and the CD/DVD release Ahmad Jamal Featuring Yusef Lateef Live at L'Olympia (2014).

Jamal is the main mentor of jazz piano virtuosa Hiromi Uehara, known as Hiromi.

Style and influence

Trained in both traditional jazz ("American classical music", as he prefers to call it) and European classical style, Ahmad Jamal has been praised as one of the greatest jazz innovators over his exceptionally long career. Following bebop greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Jamal entered the world of jazz at a time when speed and virtuosic improvisation were central to the success of jazz musicians as artists. Jamal, however, took steps in the direction of a new movement, later coined "cool jazz" – an effort to move jazz in the direction of popular music. He emphasized space and time in his musical compositions and interpretations instead of focusing on the blinding speed of bebop.

Because of this style, Jamal was "often dismissed by jazz writers as no more than a cocktail pianist, a player so given to fluff that his work shouldn't be considered seriously in any artistic sense". Stanley Crouch, author of Considering Genius, offers a very different reaction to Jamal's music, claiming that, like the highly influential Thelonious Monk, Jamal was a true innovator of the jazz tradition and is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Parker. His unique musical style stemmed from many individual characteristics, including his use of orchestral effects and his ability to control the beat of songs. These stylistic choices resulted in a unique and new sound for the piano trio: "Through the use of space and changes of rhythm and tempo", writes Crouch, "Jamal invented a group sound that had all the surprise and dynamic variation of an imaginatively ordered big band." Jamal explored the texture of riffs, timbres, and phrases rather than the quantity or speed of notes in any given improvisation. Speaking about Jamal, A. B. Spellman of the National Endowment of the Arts said: "Nobody except Thelonious Monk used space better, and nobody ever applied the artistic device of tension and release better." These (at the time) unconventional techniques that Jamal gleaned from both traditional classical and contemporary jazz musicians helped pave the way for later jazz greats like Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner.

Though Jamal is often overlooked by jazz critics and historians, he is frequently credited with having a great influence on Miles Davis. Davis is quoted as saying that he was impressed by Jamal's rhythmic sense and his "concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement". Jamal characterizes what he thought Davis admired about his music as: "my discipline as opposed to my space." Jamal and Davis became friends in the 1950s, and Davis continued to support Jamal as a fellow musician, often playing versions of Jamal's own songs ("Ahmad's Blues", "New Rhumba") until he died in 1991.

Jamal, speaking about his own work says, "I like doing ballads. They're hard to play. It takes years of living, really, to read them properly." From an early age, Jamal developed an appreciation for the lyrics of the songs he learned: "I once heard Ben Webster playing his heart out on a ballad. All of a sudden he stopped. I asked him, 'Why did you stop, Ben?' He said, 'I forgot the lyrics.'" Jamal attributes the variety in his musical taste to the fact that he grew up in several eras: the big band era, the bebop years, and the electronic age. He says his style evolved from drawing on the techniques and music produced in these three eras. In 1985, Jamal agreed to do an interview and recording session with his fellow jazz pianist, Marian McPartland on her NPR show Piano Jazz. Jamal, who said he rarely plays "But Not For Me" due to its popularity since his 1958 recording, played an improvised version of the tune – though only after noting that he has moved on to making ninety percent of his repertoire his own compositions. He said that when he grew in popularity from the Live at the Pershing album, he was severely criticized afterwards for not playing any of his own compositions.

In more recent years, Jamal has embraced the electronic influences affecting the genre of jazz. He has also occasionally expanded his usual small ensemble of three to include a tenor saxophone (George Coleman) and a violin. A jazz fan interviewed by Down Beat magazine about Jamal in 2010 described his development as "more aggressive and improvisational these days. The word I used to use is avant garde; that might not be right. Whatever you call it, the way he plays is the essence of what jazz is."

Saxophonist Ted Nash, a longtime member of the Lincoln Center Orchestra, had the opportunity to play with Jamal in 2008 for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Nash described his experience with Jamal's style in an interview with Down Beat magazine: "The way he comped wasn't the generic way that lots of pianists play with chords in the middle of the keyboard, just filling things up. He gave lots of single line responses. He'd come back and throw things out at you, directly from what you played. It was really interesting because it made you stop, and allowed him to respond, and then you felt like playing something else – that's something I don't feel with a lot of piano players. It's really quite engaging. I guess that's another reason people focus in on him. He makes them hone in [sic]."

Bands and personnel

Jamal typically plays with a bassist and drummer: his current trio is with bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Herlin Riley. He has also performed with percussionist Manolo Badrena. Jamal has recorded with the voices of the Howard A. Roberts Chorale on The Bright, the Blue and the Beautiful and Cry Young; with vibraphonist Gary Burton on In Concert; with brass, reeds, and strings celebrating his hometown of Pittsburgh; with The Assai Quartet; and with saxophonist George Coleman on the album The Essence.

Awards and honors

1959: Entertainment Award, Pittsburgh Junior Chamber of Commerce

1980: Distinguished Service Award, City of Washington D.C., Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Smithsonian Institution

1981: Nomination, Best R&B Instrumental Performance ("You're Welcome", "Stop on By"), NARAS

1986: Mellon Jazz Festival Salutes Ahmad Jamal, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1987: Honorary Membership, Philippines Jazz Foundation

1994: American Jazz Masters award, National Endowment for the Arts

2001: Arts & Culture Recognition Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women

2001: Kelly-Strayhorn Gallery of Stars, for Achievements as Pianist and Composer, East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce

2003: American Jazz Hall of Fame, New Jersey Jazz Society

2003: Gold Medallion, Steinway & Sons 150 Years Celebration (1853–2003)

2007: Living Jazz Legend, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

2007: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French government

2011: Down Beat Hall of Fame, 76th Readers Poll

2015: Honorary Doctorate of Music, The New England Conservatory

Discography

As leader

1951: Ahmad's Blues (Okeh)

1955: Ahmad Jamal Plays (Parrot) – also released as Chamber Music of the New Jazz (Argo)

1955: The Ahmad Jamal Trio (Epic)

1956: Count 'Em 88 (Argo)

1958: At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo)

1958: At the Pershing, Vol. 2 (Argo)

1958: Ahmad Jamal Trio Volume IV (Argo)

1958: Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal (Argo)

1959: The Piano Scene of Ahmad Jamal (Epic)

1959: Jamal at the Penthouse (Argo)

1960: Happy Moods (Argo)

1960: Listen to the Ahmad Jamal Quintet (Argo)

1961: All of You (Argo)

1961: Ahmad Jamal's Alhambra (Argo)

1962: Ahmad Jamal at the Blackhawk (Argo)

1962: Macanudo (Argo)

1963: Poinciana (Argo)

1964: Naked City Theme (Argo)

1965: The Roar of the Greasepaint (Argo)

1965: Extensions (Argo)

1966: Rhapsody (Cadet)

1966: Heat Wave (Cadet)

1967: Cry Young (Cadet)

1968: The Bright, the Blue and the Beautiful (Cadet)

1968: Tranquility (ABC)

1968: Ahmad Jamal at the Top: Poinciana Revisited (Impulse!)

1970: The Awakening (Impulse!)

1971: Freeflight (Impulse!)

1972: Outertimeinnerspace (Impulse!)

1973: Ahmad Jamal '73 (20th Century)

1974: Jamalca (20th Century)

1974: Jamal Plays Jamal (20th Century)

1975: Genetic Walk (20th Century)

1976: Steppin' Out with a Dream (20th Century)

1976: Recorded Live at Oil Can Harry's (Catalyst)

1978: One (20th Century)

1980: Intervals (20th Century)

1980: Live at Bubba's (Who's Who in Jazz)

1980: Night Song (Motown)

1981: In Concert (Personal Choice Records)

1982: American Classical Music (Shubra)

1985: Digital Works (Atlantic)

1985: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival 1985 (Atlantic)

1986: Rossiter Road (Atlantic)

1987: Crystal (Atlantic)

1989: Pittsburgh (Atlantic)

1992: Live in Paris 1992 (Birdology)

1992: Chicago Revisited (Telarc)

1994: I Remember Duke, Hoagy & Strayhorn (Telarc)

1994: Ahmad Jamal with The Assai Quartet (Roesch)

1994: Ahmad Jamal at Home (Roesch)

1995: The Essence Part One (Birdology)

1995: Big Byrd: The Essence Part 2 (Birdology)

1996: Live in Paris 1996 (Birdology)

1997: Nature: The Essence Part Three (Birdology)

2000: Picture Perfect

2001: Ahmad Jamal à l'Olympia

2003: In Search of Momentum

2005: After Fajr

2008: It's Magic

2008: Poinciana – One Night Only

2009: A Quiet Time

2012: Blue Moon (Jazzbook)

2013: Saturday Morning (Jazzbook)

2014: Ahmad Jamal featuring Yusef Lateef, Live at L'Olympia. 2012 — 2 CDs/1 DVD (Jazzbook/Bose/Jazz Village)

2017: Marseille (Jazz Village)

Compilations

1967: Standard Eyes (Cadet)

1972: Inspiration (Cadet)

1974: Re-evaluations: The Impulse! Years (Impulse!)

1980: The Best of Ahmad Jamal (20th Century)

1998: Ahmad Jamal 1956–66 Recordings

1998: Cross Country Tour 1958–1961 (GRP/Chess)

2005: The Legendary Okeh & Epic Recordings (1951–1955) (Columbia Legacy)

2007: Complete Live at the Pershing Lounge 1958 (Gambit)

2007: Complete Live at the Spotlite Club 1958 (Gambit)

As sideman

With Ray Brown

Some of My Best Friends Are...The Piano Players (Telarc, 1994)

With Shirley Horn

May the Music Never End (Verve, 2003)

Wikipedia

#Ahmad Jamal #07-02

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stonebutchery · 6 months

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no offense but “cunty saw boom mic guy” has a name and it’s speed ratliff and you will call him by his name because you will respect the people who are rarely, if ever, credited with making the films that you enjoy

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olgagarmash · 4 years

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Apervita, Diameter Health partner to boost clinical data quality, interoperability – FierceHealthcare

Apervita, a growth-stage healthcare collaboration startup, and Diameter Health, a provider of software for health information exchanges (HIEs), announced a partnership earlier this week that will speed up data quality measurement for value-based care.

Apervita’s collaboration platform will now incorporate Diameter’s clinical data optimization software to normalize health system data and improve data interoperability. Diameter offers automated, scalable technology to enable real-time transactions, better analytics and improved care outcomes. The alliance between Apervita and Diameter Health will boost the quality of data used to determine the amount of reimbursement in value-based contracts between providers and payers, according to the companies.

Those quality measures get submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“[Diameter] gets all of the information in an organized structured fashion so that then we can execute the quality measures to provide feedback to health plans and providers on how the providers are performing against the quality measures,” Rick Ratliff, chief commercial officer at Apervita, told Fierce Healthcare.

RELATED: Software startup Apervita rolls out advanced encryption for health plan, provider data

There has been a push over the last several years to switch from a fee-for-service model to one in which providers get paid based on the value of care. Physicians with high-quality data measurements above a certain threshold could get paid more, Ratliff said.

“If for some reason the cost was much higher and the quality was not what was expected, they might actually get penalized,” Ratliff said.

A quality measurement could include whether a patient’s blood pressure is under control, noted Eric Rosow, CEO and co-founder of Diameter Health.

For a person with diabetes, the criteria could include measurement of blood sugar levels and whether a patient received an eye or foot exam, Ratliff said. If among 1,000 diabetes patients, 500 got a foot exam, the measurement would be 50% for the exam category, he said.

“That diagnosis is captured inside of the electronic medical record. Then you have to know did each one of these steps that were necessary to properly care for a patient with diabetes actually happen,” Ratliff explained. “Each one of those is a quality measure.”

A key challenge in healthcare is to address healthcare data that comes from different sources and formats and is often not compatible.

“There are four million clinicians entering data differently into more than 100 certified EHRs, which store data differently even in instances of the same EHR brand,” Rosow told Fierce Healthcare. “That means the digital data formats and code systems coming out of EHRs vary greatly.”

RELATED: The pandemic boosted interest in new payment models. This startup developed tools to help manage those complex contracts

Diameter is focused on standardizing the various types of clinical data.

“Diameter has some advanced capabilities to be able to pull that data in from a wide variety of resources, and then get it into a standard format on the other side,” Rosow said.

Healthcare organizations are also aiming for clean clinical data, which means codes or units of measure could be missing.

“Clean, normalized data is complete and syntactically correct so that computers and humans can ‘process’ them without extraordinary effort or rework,” Rosow said.

Apervita streamlines reimbursement and provides insight on clinical and claims data using a clinical quality language (CQL) cloud platform. The insights help boost clinical workflows and provide the information needed to form value-based contracts.

“The better the quality of care provided, the better the provider’s and payer’s financial results,” Rosow said. “Such agreements are important because they drive the need for improved quality, accurate measurement and clean data.”

In addition to data-quality efforts, Apervita has recently taken critical steps to secure health data. Last year, Apervita introduced an advanced encryption feature to protect health plan and provider data from data breaches. The technology scrambles data as it travels across the internet and only shows the information to a sender and recipient.

The partnership between Apervita and Diameter will lead to more effective healthcare software overall, according to Rosow.

“Better data quality improves the effectiveness of all healthcare applications,” Rosow said.

source https://wealthch.com/apervita-diameter-health-partner-to-boost-clinical-data-quality-interoperability-fiercehealthcare/

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shawnphillipspersonaltrainer · 5 years

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STRENGTH TRAINING FOR WEIGHT LOSS: FEEL FABULOUS IN 2019 PART 2

Strength Training for Weight Loss

Strength Training for Weight Loss | Shawn Phillips Personal Trainer Feel Fabulous in 2019: Learn how strength training for weight loss can speed up your metabolism and help to sculpt your body. Click here to read the part 2.

Welcome back to The Science of Fat Loss Hints, Tricks, and Tips: Part 2 learn how to benefit from strength training for weight loss speeds up your metabolism and helps to sculpt your body. Being a holistic personal trainer and nutritionist in Los Angeles for the past 17 years has given me some interesting and key insights into healthy eating and exercise. We will start by discussing how muscle mass, weight lifting, strength training and exercise play an integral part of your fitness program.

Muscle Mass and Metabolism

You can boost your metabolism by gaining muscle. When you increase your muscle mass, you boost your resting metabolism. A pound of muscle can burn anywhere from 10 to 50 extra calories per day - the range depends on activity level. Muscle tissues use more than half the energy we burn at rest. What's the best way to gain muscle? Strength training with weights and interval training are hands down the two best ways to increase metabolism and muscle mass.

Women, don't worry, you will not get big! This idea is one of the biggest myths that I come across. According to an article in the International Sports Sciences Association, "Women have about 15-20% less concentration of testosterone in their body than men do. Without that extra testosterone, ladies can't biologically build the big muscles like men." It's science so stop worrying. If a woman does appear to be looking bulky while following a strength training program, it has more to do with poor diet than lifting weights. What ends up happening is that performing any exercise program, this will increase overall appetite. If you are already eating poorly, due to an increase in appetite because of the exercise program, you could end up gaining weight due to an increase in hunger. However, if you couple strength training and a sound nutritional program, weight loss or fat loss will follow in addition to an increase in muscle. The most important point is that there is a synergy between healthy eating, strength training, stress management and good quality sleep - all of these points are equally important.

Simply put, strength training and weight loss go hand in hand and women and men should weight train to tone up! This always needs to be coupled with a good nutrition program. To learn more about nutrition, please see my free grocery list.

Also, interval training or very short high-intensity cardio workouts are also productive and are fantastic for body sculpting and toning up. More on interval training later.

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in April 1999 showed how powerful strength training for weight loss could be when compared to long bouts of cardio training. The study observed two sets of groups; both sets were obese. One group was put on a cardio exercise program (running, biking or jogging four times per week). The other group did strength training three times per week and no cardio. At the end of the study, the aerobic group lost 37 pounds and the strength training group lost 32 pounds. But here is the kicker, the cardio group lost 10 pounds of muscle, but the strength training group gained muscle. When they looked at each groups' metabolism or their Basil Metabolic Rate, the cardio group was burning 210 fewer calories per day (slower metabolism), and the strength training group was burning 63 more calories per day (faster metabolism).

It's not only about losing weight. When it comes to muscle weight versus fat weight, a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same, but muscle takes up less surface area. The focus should be on the ratio of fat to muscle that is lost during the duration of a fitness program. The cardio group lost 27 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle. In general, this is not a good ratio. Here's another example, I have a male client that I've been working with for about a year. He lost around 4 inches off of his waist, but his body weight is the same; he's still approximately 190 pounds, which is an example of someone who has lost a tremendous amount of fat (up to 20 pounds) but yet gained muscle at the same time.

Approximately, one inch off your waist (a measurement around the belly button) is about 3 to 5 pounds of body fat. Most of my clients lose a combination of fat and gain muscle; usually about 1 to 2 pounds of fat per week and 1 to 2 pounds of muscle per month. Much of this depends on a variety of factors. Muscle is what gives your body the sexy and toned look you are aiming for because building muscle has to be a priority in any health program. You also want to make sure you're eating an adequate amount of protein. Eating more protein can boost your metabolism. Low protein diets can cause you to lose muscle.

I came across this study in the book "The Adrenal Reset" by Dr. Alan Christianson. "A group of 25 people was overfed 1,000 calories per day for eight weeks. They were divided into a vegetarian diet group getting 5% of their calories from protein, an average American diet group with 15% protein; and a high protein group with 25% from protein. Throughout the study, each group gained weight, but the typed of weight gained differed. The low-protein group lost 1.5 pounds of muscle, even though they gained fat. On the other hand, half of the weight gain in the high protein group was muscle."

Strength Training and Hormones

Strength training is the most effective method for fat loss and muscle gain compared to other forms of exercise such as yoga, Pilates, boxing, and many others. These different forms of exercise do have their unique benefits; strength training is still the gold standard for body sculpting and toning. Strength training utilizes compound movements such as squats, leg press, bench press, row, and lat pull downs. Larger muscles burn more calories and fat, so using compound movements can assist in achieving your fitness goals sooner.

According to National Center for Biological Information, "Anabolic hormones such as testosterone and the superfamily of growth hormones (GH) have been shown to be elevated during 15-30 minutes of post-resistance exercise providing an adequate stimulus is present."

People with Type 2 diabetes also benefit from strength training because when you increase lean muscle mass, you boost your base metabolic rate which causes you to burn calories at a faster rate, and according to Sherin Joseph, MPH, "Burning these calories help keep your blood sugar in check." When your body's fat-to-muscle ratio decreases, it reduces the amount of insulin you need in your body to help store energy in your fat cells. Also, strength training is the best way to reduce your A1c which is a measurement of insulin sensitivity. Whether your diabetic or simply wanting to look great naked, getting this test below 5 is ideal for fat loss and overall health.

A1C results and what the numbers mean

Diagnosis*A1C LevelNormalbelow 5.7 percentPrediabetes5.7 to 6.4 percentDiabetes6.5 percent or above

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/tests-diagnosis/a1c-test

Strengthen Your Bones, Ligaments and Tendons

Strength training for weight loss also helps the body if a fall or injury occurs. According to Jacque Ratliff, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, "If someone falls, the more strength in their muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments, the less likely they are to be injured."

Compound Movements in Strength Training

The following are tips to help you on your bridge to body sculpting.

Squats - When you perform a squat, you are mainly working the whole body. An estimated 200 muscles are being activated during a squat movement, but the primary muscle group being used are the quadriceps. Other muscles involved include the hamstrings, glutes, and calves.

Leg Press - The primary muscle group is the quadriceps, and the secondary muscle groups are hamstrings and glutes.

Bench Press - This exercise has a few variations including flat, incline and decline but they all are considered compound movements and can be done with barbells or dumbbells. The primary muscle group being worked is the chest, and the secondary muscles include the shoulders and triceps.

Row - Performing a row can be done with a machine, barbells or dumbbells and primarily works the muscles of the back but also works the biceps and forearms.

Lat Pull Down - This exercise works the muscles of the back as the name implies, the latissimus dorsi, but it also works the biceps and forearms.

When doing compound exercises, you train multiple muscles at the same time. You get more bang for the buck doing compound movements. The ideal time for strength training should be around 35-45 minutes not including warm-up. For videos that go thru various exercises, see the video page: Exercises Videos

Strength Training for Weight Loss Routine: What to Expect

Once you’ve started a comprehensive strength training for weight loss program, usually you should start seeing results in about 3 to 4 weeks. Your clothes should be looser and your shape should be changing - waist getting smaller and muscles looking more toned. Also, make sure you couple this with a good nutrition program - I know I'm sounding repetitive on this point, but this is extremely important. Your nutrition program most focus on 1)healthy eating and 2) healthy eating to lose fat.

If you stop strength training, you will start to lose your gains in about 2 to 4 weeks - this is called atrophy. It is best to be consistent with your program; 7 to 10 days would be the maximum days you could miss before you may start losing your gains or simply becoming marginally deconditioned. The more time goes by without training, the more you lose.

I would recommend performing strength training two to four times per week and on the other days perform some type of cardio (aerobic, interval, or walking).

What is and is NOT Standard Strength Training

What is strength training:

Rest times between sets are about 1 to 3 minutes

Lifting heavier weight about 60 to 85% intensity

6 to 12 reps for each set

Total sets per workout can range from 12 to 20 sets

What is NOT strength training

Circuit Training: No rest times and doing back to back exercises

Taking a class, lifting 2.5 pound dumbbells and doing 40 to 50 repetitions

Strength Training and Body Proportions

Make sure that when choosing your strength training exercises, focus on the exercises listed above. Back and Leg muscles should be prioritized for the following reasons:

Focusing on back and legs is the easiest way to put on muscle, raising your metabolic rate.

Back and legs are the best way to shape your body; the most important measurements are the chest measurement, hip measurement and the waist measurement. To create the ideal physique, focus on getting the hip and the chest measurement to about the same circumference, while leaning out and making the waist that much smaller.

Working these muscles are great for sports.

Working out these muscles will make you look great in clothes!

Train according to how big a muscle is: the bigger the muscle, the more time you should spend on that muscle and focus on training big muscles at the beginning of a workout when you have the most energy. For example, you would work out back (big muscle), before chest (small muscle). Another example, workout legs (big muscle) before abs (smaller muscle).

Guys, don't train to look like a tree - big upper body and small legs and calves. The over emphasis on upper body, specifically chest and arms is problematic. Proportion is the key! Look at Greek and Roman statues or pictures of Steve Reeves in the 1950s, they had perfect proportions! This is what you should shoot for.

For more on weight training tips, weight training misconceptions and rest times in between sets, check out my article page here: health and fitness articles.

What is Interval Training

Interval training is a great way to speed up fat loss and boost and optimize hormone production. Interval training essentially is short bursts of high intensity cardio with subsequent breaks in between bursts. For example, after a 10 to 15 minute warm up, performing high intensity bursts on the elliptical. It would look something like this:

10 to 15 minute warm up - very important, this lubes up your joints and getting your nervous system ready for work!

30 second burst

1:30 (minute and a half) going slow and recovering

30 second burst