close

Poor economy leads to bad health decisions

2 min read

According to a national omnibus survey of 1,000 people conducted in March 2009 by the American Heart Association, Americans are cutting back on healthy activities, including exercising regularly, as a direct result of the bad economy.

Just one of the alarming findings of the study announced this week: An

overwhelming 25 percent of those with gym memberships have cancelled in the previous six months.

“A bad economy should never be a reason to let your body-and more

importantly, your overall health-take the same drastic downturn as your

portfolio,” says Myatt Murphy, CSCS, fitness expert and co-author of Men’s

Health’s Gym Bible, “You can still achieve the same body-shaping,

heart-healthy results you would get from a gym membership by simply

investing in a simple pair of dumbbells.”

So why do most people that invest in this inexpensive fitness tool when

times get tough financially always seem to fail? “The main reason is because

the average person only knows how to perform a handful of exercises with

them to start,” says Murphy, who has collaborated on books with some of

Hollywood’s elite celebrity trainers, including Hugh Jackman and Jennifer

Lopez’s trainer Gunnar Peterson and Alicia Keys trainer Harley Pasternak.

“There are literally tens of thousands of exercises you can pull off using

only dumbbells, if you know how to master them,” Murphy says, “But

fortunately, all you need to survive your own exercise recession is to

learn how to perform a handful of full-body dumbbell moves that train your

upper and lower body simultaneously.”

Murphy’s book, The Ultimate Dumbbell Guide, shows readers how to perform

over 22,000 exercises, including many of the celebrity secret moves many

Hollywood trainers use with their clients. “Most of the unique exercises

you’ll see many top trainers recommend are merely several dumbbell exercises merged together into one multi-step routine,” says Murphy, who created a formula in his book that lets readers pick and choose which muscles they want to train in the same session, allowing them to create ‘millions’ of full-body exercises without needing any training certification what-so-ever.

itness, Glamour, GQ, Health,

Match.com, Maxim, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, MSN, Muscle