At some point your abs won’t be challenged hard with normal planks. There are a ton of plank variations, but this is one I’ve never used: Jumping Jack Planks.
Here is a version where you just use your legs.

Here’s one that uses arms and legs (more advanced).

I think I will add this exercise to at least one of my ab workouts each week. Without even doing these I can see how they would increase definition and density.
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Today Mark Sisson put up a post on the top 9 foods you should buy as organic. Baby Food makes the top of the list, but there are some other important ones in there as well.

I didn’t realize apples were such a concern. According to Mark:
You may not be eating many apples, but if you do, they are officially the dirtiest fruits out there. According to the Dirty Dozen folks, 98% of all conventional samples tested had pesticide residues. There’s also some evidence that organic apples have more polyphenols and greater antioxidant capacity than conventional apples, making organic apples a no-brainer decision.

For the full article, click the link below.
Link: Top 9 Most Important Foods to Buy Organic
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pimg class=”alignright” title=”Organic” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/organic5-1.jpg” alt=”organic5 1″ width=”320″ height=”228″ /In a perfect world, we#8217;d all be shopping at farmers markets for our produce, tending to bug-eating, orange yolk-producing chickens in our backyards, pooling our resources with other folks to divvy up grass-fed and/or pastured animals, having the farmers who produce our food over for dinner, milking the A2-casein grass-fed teats with our bare hands into BPA-free containers, culling the geese down at the local pond and roasting the dead, foraging for seagull eggs, going mushroom hunting in the forest, ensnaring chubby winter squirrels fattened on acorns and small birds, raising kale-fed crickets for alternative protein sources, and, well, you get the idea. But that isn#8217;t realistic for most people. And heck, who would want to go to all the trouble. What with how easy it is to just swing by the grocery store on the way home from work, especially […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

This recipe for fudge is a classic one from my childhood. I like it because it requires no special equipment or ingredients — just sugar, cocoa powder, milk, salt, butter and vanilla. Even a candy thermometer is optional.

I like this recipe for its practicality and deliciousness, but I love it because it’s my father’s recipe and every time I make it, it’s like I’m spending time with him again.

READ MORE »

This movement is called a band rotary hold. Think of it as a way of doing planks where you are resisting rotation. This will help hit the muscles differently than side planks and normal planks.

I like to add these in at least once per week…about 3 holds per side. Either increase the thickness of the band, or stretch it out more to make it tougher as your strength increases.
The post Anti-Rotational Planks Using a Resistance Band (video) appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

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Click on the image and click again to zoom in. Sorry it looks so small on my narrow blog. A pretty decent little infographic!

The post Body Hacks for a Longer Life (Infographic) appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

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My girlfriend has been eating gluten free for over 3 years now. In that time I’ve reduced my gluten intake dramatically. Here’s the thing…whenever I eat gluten my digestive system lets me know.

Dr. Peter Osborne is an authority in the gluten free community. Here’s a solid 6 minute video where he discusses gluten intolerance.

He also has a guest post put up on Craig Ballantyne’s blog discussing how going gluten free improves athletic performance. A good read!
Link: Gluten Free Diet Great For Athletics.
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CBS News has a video on their site about the risk of eating certain types of pork. This new report is slightly unsettling.

Quote from the site:
Of nearly 200 pork samples tested by Consumer Reports, many tested positive for salmonella, listeria, staph bacteria. The magazine says a whopping 69 percent contained yersinia, which infects nearly 100,000 Americans every year. Children are especially vulnerable.

Link: Consumer Reports sounds alarm on pork safety — CBS News.
Here’s a link to full Consumer Reports article:
Link: What’s in that pork?
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