Just as it is necessary to know what steps to take to meet your individual fitness goals, it is just as important to know what not to do. Avoid following top ten mistakes that are sure to ruin your fitness efforts:

1. Fail to Plan. It's been said over and over: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Working out without a pre-determined workout regime is similar to going on a trip without directions; most likely you'll end up getting lost. Don't make this common mistake. Enlist aid of a qualified personal trainer to design a proper resistance training and aerobic program. Purchase one of many guides to fitness programming and educate yourself on basics.

2. Compare yourself to others. Go into any gym and you're sure to see grunting exercisers muscling their way through workouts. Meanwhile, group fitness studio is filled with twirling, panting, leaping students who look more like they're auditioning for a music video than participating in an aerobics class. Don't even think about trying to emulate them. At very least you'll get discouraged that you can't keep up; at worst you'll get hurt.

Keep your expectations realistic. A beginning expecting to bench 300 pounds in first month is doomed to failure. Better to increase strength incrementally over time. Likewise, presuming that you'll lose 100 pounds of bodyfat on a new diet in three months will never happen. Set realistic goals that will keep you motivated and concentrate on yourself, not others, throughout process.

3. Too little exercise. Contrary to what popular exercise programs would have us believe, it is simply not enough to put in three or four exercise sessions per week and expect major results. Weight loss and body composition changes are results of cumulative lifestyle choices, not just exercise in gym. There are 168 hours in a week; expecting to lose weight by just spending 1% of our available time being active is ridiculous.

This doesn’t mean you need to spend your entire day chained to a barbell, but make sure that you are active in some fashion every day. In addition to workouts, increase lower level activity by walking or bike riding to work, choose parking space furthest away from grocery store’s door, or get out and play with your kids. The point is to be active and keep body in motion on a regular basis.

4. Too much exercise. On other hand, don't become obsessed with exercise that it begins to rule your life. Over-training is as detrimental to achieving fitness goals as doing nothing at all.

Common signs of over-training include overuse injuries, insomnia, fatigue, prolonged recovery from workouts, and general disinterest in exercise. Rest and recovery are vital for achieving gains and preventing burnout.

5. Never change your workout routine. Nothing is as boring as same routine over and over again. Not only will you get bored, your muscles will adapt and quit responding. Change your exercises, order you do them, number of sets and reps, and vary weights. Variety is necessary or progress will stop. Make every workout different in some way.

6. Starving to lose weight. The usual American diet consists of a quick (usually missed) breakfast, lunch on run and then a huge feast for dinner. Unfortunately, this is worst eating plan for weight loss because it slows down metabolism. When body is not fed consistently, it flips into starvation mode developed through evolution and hangs onto fat content for survival.

Are You Half The Man Your Father Was?

It is a well-known fact that sperm counts have dropped by half in last 50 years, and that modern men have 20 percent less semen volume than their fathers (BMJ, 1992, volume 305).

A recent report from researchers in Aberdeen presented preliminary data that suggests sperm concentration of men seen in their clinic had declined by 29% over past 14 years. (British Fertility Society; 5 January 2004)

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from normal, everyday plastics are known to cause reproductive damage, as documented in Theo Colborn's book "Our Stolen Future."

Damage to sperm caused by exposure to common chemicals like alcohol, pesticides in food, has been linked to lowered intelligence and behavioral disorders in children.

Lifestyle risk factors known to decrease sperm quality include

> Cigarette smoking > Alcohol consumption > Chronic stress > Nutritional deficiencies.

Other reasons for infertility include congenital factors, and health conditions like prostatitis and diabetes that can affect sperm production.

Pollution is stealing our future, and there's little anyone can do to avoid it. There may not be a lot you can do to reduce your exposure to persistent environmental toxins.

But there are definite measures you can take to reduce impact of environmental pollutants and toxins on your body.

You can prevent and, to a certain extent, repair damage they cause to your body, through a better lifestyle and nutrition.

Some nutritional therapies and antioxidants that have proven beneficial in treating male infertility and improving sperm counts, sperm morphology and motility include:

> Carnitine > Arginine > Zinc > Selenium > Vitamin B-12 > Vitamin C > Vitamin E > Glutathione > Coenzyme Q10

Studies show that anti-oxidant supplementation - glutathione in particular - can improve sperm quality, and possibly increase your chances of conceiving.

If you smoke, drink, are exposed to stress, chemicals, radiation, pesticides or take medication or drugs (like sulfasalazine, ketoconazole, azulfidine, anabolic steroids, marijuana) that affect fertility, you should consider taking an antioxidant supplement to reverse some of damage.

Why are Antioxidants Important for Sperm Quality?

Mammalian spermatozoa are coated by a membrane rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are extremely susceptible to oxidative damage by free radicals or Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) by a process called lipid peroxidation (LPO).

Lipid peroxidation damages sperm cell membrane. It is considered to be key mechanism of ROS-induced sperm damage and leads to

> Loss of sperm motility > Abnormal sperm morphology > Reduced capacity for oocyte penetration > Infertility

To protect sperm from damage, body depends on powerful antioxidant enzymes in body such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase/reductase (GPX/GRD).