By: Big Red

Thank God its Friday. That's right, the weekend has begun, and for the average teen, what do we do on weekends? PARTY! And let's face it, despite what you tell your parents, what do parties center around? Beer! In college, social lives pretty much revolve around alcohol. Just about everyone in college drinks, many go into college saying they won't, few uphold that promise.

As bodybuilders, our bodies are our lives. We eat right throughout the week, get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, stay as healthy as possible, and of course, workout. We put all these efforts into ourselves throughout the week, but on weekends we drink like fish and get sh!t faced.

How Alcohol Diminishes Muscle Gain

I used to drink heavily on party nights too, until a couple weeks ago when I realized just how much getting drunk was hurting my gains. I'm hoping that after you've read this article, for those of you that drink, you will see just how detrimental alcohol is to building muscle and hopefully cut down on drinking.

By: David Robson

Alcohol use - as a well-established part of human culture - is something that has become almost as acceptable as eating and breathing. As a social facilitator and feel good drug of choice for many, alcohol is very popular indeed, with consumption at mass levels.

However, alcohols well-documented deleterious effects - diminished performance, mental impairment, possible addiction, diabetes and liver disease to varying degrees in certain individuals - could be seen as a good reason to steer clear of it.

This being said, many people enjoy its sedating influence and it does play a vital role in many of society's traditions and practices. One effect alcohol has, which is not widely discussed, is its impact on body composition. In its purest form, ethyl alcohol, which supplies seven calories per gram, alcohol provides energy, bumping up ones total energy balance whenever it is consumed.

Jennifer Becerra IFBB Fitness Competitor

By: Mike Mahler

"Research now confirms what common sense has always told us: Happy people live longer, enjoy healthier lives, achieve more success, and maintain stronger relationships than the chronically unhappy."
Liz Seymour

Recently, on a business trip to Dallas to do a kettle bell workshop with my friend Lisa Shaffer, I read an interesting article in, of all places, US Airways magazine**. The author, Liz Seymour, wrote on the topic of happiness. I expected a patronizing bit about forced positive thinking providing the key to happiness but, to my pleasant surprise, Seymour's article turned out to be the most fascinating I've read in a long time.

Definition Of Happiness

How do we define happiness? According to Ed Diener, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, happiness is a combination of "life satisfaction, positive emotions, and low levels of negative emotions."

By: Dr. David Ryan

Whether you are the weekend athlete, soccer mom or a professional physique athlete your overall appearance is based on the same factor of a tiny little gland called the thyroid. This tiny little gland in your neck controls your hair, skin, eyes and every cell in the body.

In your quest to become ultra lean or just shed a few pounds, your success is controlled by the tiny little organ. Several factors can go wrong and leave you bloated or just stuck on a treadmill confused about how you can drop those simple first four pounds. Making sure that your body is ready to get lean is one of the first steps of losing excess body fat.

If you are having trouble losing body fat or you have hit that body weight plateau and cannot get your last few pounds off, then it is time to learn more about the ultimate factor controlling your bodyweight. Many other health conditions are closely associated with thyroid conditions.

Ali Huston amateur figure competitor