If your doctor graded you on your health, what would you get? According to The GE Better Health Study, it might not be the grade you expect.

In the survey, more than 2,000 people answered questions about how they and their health care professionals rate the country's health. What's interesting is the difference between what they thought about their health and what their doctors had to say. You can see evidence of this disconnect in some of their answers:

• Almost 30% gave themselves an A for managing their health, while almost 92% of doctors gave them a C or lower.
• More than 50% said other people's health was on the wrong track while just 17% thought the same of their own.
• About 33% gave themselves an A for healthy eating and exercising, while 92% of doctors gave them a C or lower.
• Most respondents agreed that having a healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, calorie intake and glucose levels (among other numbers) were key to good health. Yet, most didn't actually know these numbers.
• Most also agreed that getting regular checkups was important, yet 70% found ways to avoid seeing their doctors. In fact, many respondents said they would rather live in pain than visit their doctor.

This survey is pretty eye-opening and makes me wonder: Do we see our health the way we see our driving? Ask most people and they'll say they're good drivers, but if that were true, I wouldn't have had to slam on my brakes this morning to avoid a woman backing out of her driveway.

Not that I've ever done such a thing.

What do you think? How many of us think we're healthy even if we're not? I suspect that, for many of us, it's not just based on what we do but on how we feel. After all, what does high cholesterol or hardening arteries actually feel like? Not much, at least until it leads to a heart attack.

For this week's poll, I'd like for you to grade yourself on how healthy you are, keeping in mind that your answer depends on your definition of 'health.' Since I could spend all day trying to define health, let's make it easy by setting some broad parameters: Eating healthfully, exercising regularly, not smoking, being active, getting regular checkups from your doctor, managing stress and getting quality sleep on a regular basis. That clearly doesn't cover it all, so please leave a comment to tell us how you define being healthy and what your grade is all about.

More About Being Healthy

• Simple Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle
• Are You Ready to Make a Lifestyle Change?
• Make Healthy Living Fun
• 6 Weeks to a Healthier Lifestyle

Vote in This Week's Poll: How would you grade how healthy you are? originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 05:00:16.

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A while back, I posted a blog about strength training reps. Specifically, how to choose your reps when you're lifting weights. One reader posted a comment mentioning pyramid training, a method training that involves increasing your weight and decreasing your reps with each set.

I got quite a few email questions about pyramid training, wondering what it was and whether they should try it, so I thought this would make a great challenge for you to try, if you haven't already. Pyramid training:

• Makes workouts more interesting - If you've been following the same old straight-set training (e.g., 4 x 10 reps or 3 x 8 reps), pyramid training can breathe new life into your routine. By changing reps and weights, your muscle fibers will fire differently, giving them a new challenge.
• Gives you time to warm up - By starting lighter and gradually moving up to heavier weights, you give your muscles and connective tissue a chance to get warm and prepare for the challenge ahead.
• Overloads the muscles - As you increase the weight for each set, you can effectively overload the muscles, exhausting the muscle fibers to create an intense and effective routine.

There are many ways to set up pyramid training, but the traditional approach involves ascending pyramids. The following is an example using dumbbell chest presses:

Set 1 - 20 lbs x 12 reps
Set 2 - 25 lbs x 10 reps
Set 3 - 30 lbs x 8 reps

How much you increase your weight is up to you, but the general rule is about 5-20 pounds, depending on the exercise and your fitness level. You want to choose a weight that you can only lift for the desired number of reps - the last rep should be difficult, but you should be able to complete it with good form.

Your challenge this week is to try pyramid training, if you haven't already. You can find out more about the different types of pyramid training or check out this upper body pyramid workout and this lower body pyramid workout for some ideas.

What do you think about pyramid training? Leave a comment and tell us about your experiences.

More about changing your strength training workouts.

Challenge of the Week: Pyramid Training originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 09:43:47.

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If you live in or near st.louis, missouri, we are planning a meet-up in april, 2010, and we would love for you to join us. For the lastest information about our get-together, please join us on facebook.

If you're like most of us, winter is starting to get very, very long. Know how to cheer yourself up? By adding a little kick to your workouts with some new music or new workout ideas. Below are a few things worth looking at:

• iSweat2theBEAT: This fitness app (which costs $.99) sounds pretty cool, especially if you like to workout at a certain pace. This site has a database of 70,000 song titles categorized by beats per minute. You can also search by your desired BPMs for common activities like walking, running, the elliptical and more. The app gives you a link to iTunes to download songs or a notification telling you if you already have it in your library. I haven't tried this one, so be sure to leave a comment if you have any experience with it.
• Asskicking Music: The name speaks for itself. This site promises, "The world's most Complete & Total Asskicking Music. Whether it's Rock, Power-Pop, Metal, Punk, Techno, Industrial, Hip-hop, or Crossover." You can search for music by genre or browse through their categories which include Hottest, Hardest/Heaviest, Fastest Tempo and more. You can listen to previews of each song and then buy/download the song from Amazon or iTunes. What's missing are the BPMs for each song, which would be a nice bonus, but it's a great way to find new workout music.
• Techno Sweat: This is another interesting music site for exercisers. Here you can find workout and fitness music for all types of workouts and there are a variety of things you can do at this site. You can search through their available albums and view songs along with BPMs, purchase songs from Techno Sweat or from iTunes or buy entire albums. They can also change the speed of your songs ($.99 per song) to match whatever BPM you prefer or create albums for you based on the songs you like.
• My Gym Trainer: This is actually a book rather than a website or app for music, but worth mentioning. I recently reviewed this one and found it to be a solid workout companion for anyone experiencing gym confusion. It's actually a binder with 4 weeks worth of workouts and you can take the cards out and bring them to the gym. You can also get them in 3 different fitness levels: Beginner, intermediate or advanced. It may be a little too one-sized-fits-all for some exercisers, but a good choice for beginners who need some guidance.

What about you? Heard about anything new lately? If so, leave a comment and tell us about it.

What's New in Fitness Music, Apps and More originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 05:00:44.

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Our latest weight loss success story covers a cringe-worth situation that is a great reminder to all of us: Never assume a woman is pregnant. That's exactly what happened in Chiklet's case. She wasn't pregnant and had had her third child a year earlier, but strangers kept asking her when her baby was due. It bears repeating: Never assume a woman is pregnant.

Chiklet took control of her situation by joining a gym. She started using a treadmill and lifting a few weights, with some mediocre results. She then tried a kickboxing class and everything changed from that point on. She also found some success by joining Beachbody (a company which has created popular fitness programs like P90X) where she could track her calories and find support.

Read more about Chiklet's story and be sure to

Reader Success Story: How Chiklet Lost 30 Pounds originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 05:00:49.

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Yoga and physical therapist Marlysa Sullivan’s first instructional yoga Cd uses simple yoga poses to strengthen and lengthen the core...

I like staying in my comfort zone because it's so nice there. I get up, I put on my workout clothes and I do a workout I've probably done a hundred times before. If it's Monday, I run. If it's Tuesday, I do kickboxing. If it's Wednesday, I...snore. Routines and habits are good, but the comfort zone can eventually become a rut if you don't shake things up from time to time.

This week, challenge yourself with something new and different. Do something that pushes the boundaries a little, whether it's working harder or, for some, backing off and doing something easy.

Challenge Yourself

• Change Your Workout Schedule - Throw the usual schedule on it's ear and, for just one week, do something you would normally never do. If you do cardio 5 days a week and strength training 3 days a week, flip them and do cardio 3 days and strength training for 5 days (with different muscle groups, of course). Throw out all your cardio and strength workouts and do yoga for an entire week or do only body weight exercises and see how hard you can work using just your own body's resistance.
• Work at a Different Intensity - If you usually work at a steady, lower intensity, try high intensity interval training like this sprint interval workout. If you do high intensity workouts, try working at a slow, comfortable pace for some of your workouts. Or try a pyramid approach: Start your week with a hard cardio workout and make each subsequent workout a little easier.
• Trade Workouts With a Friend - If you know someone who works out regularly, trade workouts with them for one week. This can actually be fun, pushing you to try activities and workouts you've never done before.
• Try the 30-Day Fitness Challenge. If you're looking to shake things up even more, this e-course offers both physical and mental challenges for the next 30 days.

What other ways could you challenge yourself? Think about it and make a plan. Shake things up and do something different. You may just find a whole new way to exercise.

Stuck In Your Comfort Zone? Challenge Yourself originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 05:00:36.

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A BEAUTY pageant finalist from Harpenden is using her newfound fame to raise awareness about the chronic skin disorder she suffers from. Abigail Rose, aged 14, of Hillside Road, was talent scouted for the Teen Princess UK pageant at the Clothes Show in Birmingham last December and after having successfully got through the first round, she is now in the final heats of the competition. St George’s Secondary School pupil Abigail, who lives in Hillside Road, entered the pageant to raise awareness about vitiligo, a condition she has suffered from for nearly ...

One of my favorite ways to add intensity to my workouts is with tri-sets - Three different exercises for the same muscle group, performed one after the other with no rest. I especially like this for the smaller muscles of the arms, particularly the triceps. It's a great way to work the muscle from different angles and positions and doing different exercises (rather than resting between sets) makes the workout both intense and efficient.

Below are my three favorite triceps exercises, skull crushers, one-arm incline extensions and kickbacks. I like doing these together because they involve different angles, positions and types of resistance, giving you an intense and well-rounded triceps workout.

Skull Crushers: Lie on a bench and hold a light-medium barbell in a narrow grip (hands about shoulder-width apart). You may also want to keep the thumbs curled over the bar and next to the fingers if you feel safe doing so. Begin with the bar straight up over the chest, palms face out and the elbows are slightly soft. Bend the elbows and lower the weight down towards the head, stopping when the elbows are at about 90 degrees and the bar is just above the forehead. Push the weight back up and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-12 reps.

One-Arm Incline Triceps Extensions: Lie with the left side on the ball with the bottom knee down for support. Hold a medium weight in the right hand with the arm straight up, palm facing out.  Bend the elbow and lower the weight behind your head to about 90 degrees. Squeeze the triceps to straighten the arm and repeat for 8-12 reps before switching sides.

Kickbacks: Stand with feet about hip-distance apart and bend over at the hips, back flat and abs in until your torso is parallel to the floor. Pull the elbows up to the torso and extend the arms straight out behind you. Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps. You can also do this one arm at a time which works better if you're lifting a heavier weight.

Exercises of the Week: Tri-Set Triceps originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 05:00:13.

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After a devastating natural disaster compounded an already dire situation in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, Yogis all over the...