yoga43108

When I first saw the internet I was astonished at its potential. Having a newsprint publishing background, I was able to quickly understand that it was only a matter of time when having a website would not be a choice decision, but a mandatory one if a business was going to compete in their marketplace, whether it be local, statewide, national, or worldwide.

At that time I was the Marketing Director for a successful 7 figure plus a year remodeling construction firm. We handled all of our marketing in house, producing all of our promotional materials that was anchored by our own Home Improvement Monthly Newspaper which was delivered to the driveways of 10,000 single-family homes each month.

After recognizing the potential of the internet I was able to see the necessity of our firm expanding to the internet. Keeping with our established policy of in house marketing production, we elected to produce our own website. Believing in doing so, it would provide us with the same flexibility of our newspaper. The problem, however, was none of us knew anything, whatsoever, about producing and maintaining website. How bad could the learning curve be anyways?

To cut a long story short, I, after a considerable learning curve, was able to accomplish my goal of becoming a webmaster learning 5 different programming languages. In fact I enjoyed it so much I became a freelance web designer and have design a considerable number of sites requiring a varying degree of skill levels from the simple five page site to complicated community portals.

The sad truth, however, is that with each passing day, the need for the freelance web designer is diminishing as technology advances. Recently I read a blog post somewhere which was specifically challenging the need for a designer at all.

The author, a successful consultant in his field, stated that after several years of frustration with finding and maintaining a designer he could depend on, he researched the possibility of managing his own site making use of one of the many open source content management system (CMS) that are out there. The entire article was concerning the fact that not only was he able to locate a CMS which met all his needs and more, but how with a minimum learning curve he was able to produce a quality site for more flexible and interactive that what he had receive from the designer.

Having made use of several of the open source scripts out there in my development, I had little to do but to agree with the author. In fact, in my own design business I have gone almost exclusively to using open source programs for my clients.

For the same money charged, I am able to provide my clients with a far more effective and interactive site. In fact, being CSS based and template driven, the majority of my income now a days is derived from training office personal to administer the site in house, which is how I got started in the business in the first place.

Additionally, as the ability to store more and more information on the head of a pin increases, web hosting companies are being forced to develop and offer more and more point and click web development tools designed specifically for assisting the business to be able to produce and publish their site in house to attract and maintain business.

The writing is on the wall. While there will always be a need for Freelance Designers because there will always be those businesses who have no interests in managing their site in house, with the ease of all of the point and click development out there, with more and more coming out everyday, the market is shrinking daily.

My philosophy is simple if you cant beat them, join them. While I dont expect my business to fall of the face of the earth tomorrow, I have do recognize the need to shift emphasis from primarily designing sites to primarily counseling and training businesses to maintain and administer their own site in house.

To learn more about managing your business website in house, or producing a quality home-based internet business visit http://quality-web-design.com

Pete Bolduc has served as the marketing director for several small businesses, including serving as a Regional Sales Manager in the insurance industry and as Regional Marketing Director in the Water Treatment industry. He maintains a locally focused Web Design and Services Business in New Mexico and publishes several educational and for profit websites related to personal finance and web design, He was recently appointed to the position of Director of Marketing & Media and Adviser to the Chief Operations Officer for Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc., an international organization.
http://www.quality-web-design.com
http://www.ruidosowebservices.com
http://www.rebuild-credit.us

Living in the Southern United States can be lovely. Consider the live oaks, flowering magnolias and dogwoods. These are able to thrive in the south due to the favorable climate, with mild wet winters, and long, hot and humid summers. These summer weather patterns might be suitable for plants, but they can wreak havoc on people's comfort levels. Give yourself the gift of enjoyment no matter what the weather dishes up by obtaining a portable air conditioner.

One benefit you will receive from a portable air conditioner is that you can move it from room to room in your home. Rolling casters on the bottom help you smoothly move it, and in this way you can have cooling air anywhere you need it. Have a nice, cool kitchen or dining room to have your morning coffee, then move it to your home office to get your work done in comfort, and finish by placing it in your bedroom for an air-cooled night of restful sleep. A portable air conditioner can also be used in covered outdoor situations as well. Now you can enjoy a screened-in porch in August in pleasure, or an afternoon working in the garage in satisfaction, with soothing cool air wafting about you.

Another advantage given to you by the use of a portable air conditioner is that it freshens the air wherever you place it. Many portable air conditioners come with filters that help remove particles like pollen, dust and pet dander from the air.

People living in the South know how uncomfortable high humidity days can be. You get up and take a shower, and in a few minutes you are drenched and feel like you need to take another shower, all due to the excessive humidity. These unpleasant side effects of high humidity are a thing of the past if you own a portable air conditioner. These units also offer dehumidifying features, some of which need only infrequent emptying of the reservoirs. This helps take the water out of the air in your room of choice, and it helps you to stay dry, cool and comfortable.

Unlike some older window-mounted permanent air conditioners, portable air conditioners run in a very quiet manner. This is important if you are using it in an area where you are trying to get work done or sleep.

It is also important to consider the energy usage of an air conditioner. Some units take the water extracted from the air and use it to cool the air conditioning unit, which helps it run more mechanically and cost efficiently. A portable air conditioner can be a summer saver if you live in the South, so invest in your comfort today.

Susan Slobac has been a home improvement and appliance professional for many years. She is featured in many publications as being an expert in appliaces such as air conditioners, portable air conditioners and home appliances

I keep hearing this nonsense about doing exercise in a hot room such as yoga. I am finding that the general public is very misinformed about human physiology and how our bodies react to exercising in hot climates. This is the first part of a 2 part article designed to give people some important information about what is exactly happening to their bodies when they attend these hot workouts, and how they may even be increasing their risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. I will also attempt to show you how many of the claims are completely false.

This is a short list of the most persistent claims I typically found about hot yoga on the internet.

Increased heat of the room allows for better flexibility and stretching

Increased heart rate allows your body to more easily burn fat and gives a cardiovascular workout

Increased Sweating helps your body eliminate toxins

Lets look at each one of these in more detail from a scientific standpoint.

Increased Temperature means increased flexibility
Increased core body temperature of approximately 3 degrees has been shown scientifically to be the threshold where connective tissues like ligaments, tendons and muscles become more elastic and flexible. This temperature increase has been shown to be possible with exercise. For example 20 minutes of cardio such as running or biking can get your core temperature up enough. External heat like heat patches applied directly to muscles have been shown to be ineffective at increasing the temperature of these tissues. If these hot workouts provide an increase in flexibility I have yet to find research to substantiate it. But if you like the way it feels I cant argue with anyone on that point.

Increased Heart Rate means increased fat burning and cardio fitness
The increase in heart rate you get from exercising in the heat is a result of excessive fluid loss from profuse sweating. The heart has to pump more often because there is less blood volume per beat. This is an early sign of dehydration. This has nothing to do with fat burning or cardiovascular fitness. This will also cause you to fatigue prematurely and cause your body core temperature to heat up even more as now your heart is working even harder. This starts a vicious cycle of increasing body temperature and sets you on a path to heat illness or heat exhaustion.

Excessive sweating causes you to sweat out toxins
Sweat does not remove toxins, this is a complete lie with no scientific proof at all. The only potential way sweat could be used for detox is rehab from drug addiction if at all. In these cases the rehab should be under the supervision of a medical practitioner, and even this is very poorly represented in the scientific research and mostly shows up in alternative medicine articles. Sweating in hot environments is your bodies way of cooling down through evaporation of water. In a humid room the sweat is much less effective at cooling your body down. Toweling the sweat off also interferes with the ability of the sweat to cool your body off. If the room is humid (and from what I am reading hot yoga rooms are meant to be at approximately 50% humidity) the sweat is even less effective at cooling you off. This starts a vicious cycle of your body temperature increasing, then your body sweats more to try and cool you off, and then you become more dehydrated. This is also a dangerous situation if you stay in the heat for too long. All of this extra sweating is just a recipe for dehydration and heat exhaustion. There is simply no such thing as sweating out toxins. This is an idea that has been laid to rest by the scientific medical community decades ago. The fact that it still persists in pop culture is absolutely ridiculous.

Part 2 of this article will explain heat acclimatization, why I think this hot workout trend is simply a marketing angle, and some of the real benefits of yoga.

John Barban is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a varsity strength and conditioning coach. His trademarked http://www.6minuteCircuits.com Circuit Training workouts have helped thousands of women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. http://www.grrlathlete.com John's female sports training articles will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. You can ask John a question on the http://www.grrlathlete.freeforums.org a womens workout forum to help you lose fat and get in shape with circuit training and nutrition.