Name of Site: Zone Health and Fitness
URL: www.zonehealth.com.au
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Review: Getting fit has never been easier with this online fitness centre. Based in Sydney, Zone Health offers a variety of services that'll get you so fit your friends will be setting their watches to your heart rate. With everything from recipes and exercise library to inspirational pep-talk style newsletters, Zone Health's most interesting feature is probably its "online personal trainer". For a small fee you get (email) access to a fully qualified fitness trainer and coach who, using your details and medical history will design a special program for your needs. Zone Health also gets into corporate training - to get the team up and running in the corporate triathlons - and fun-filled training camps, where you get intensive workouts combined with great social activity. It's time to get into the Zone and get that bod into shape. - SS
Name of Site: Vegetarian Society UK's Health & Nutrition Site
URL: www.vegsoc.org/health
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Review: While you might assume that anyone who is a rabbit, err... vegetarian, is probably living a fairly healthy life, you could easily be mistaken. Without the proper care and dietary diligence it's easy to miss out on nutrients that us omnivores take for granted (along with our increased risk of colon cancer and coronary heart disease). Thanks to the Vegetarian Society of the UK, this site, through a series of articles, diagrams, books and links about both nutrition and general health issues will help all veggies, both new and old, eat their way to better health and longer life. Oh yes, and save the lives of a few cute and cuddly critters along the way. - SS
Name of Site: Men's Health
URL: www.menshealth.com
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Review: One of the big gender inequalities out there has always been the amount of time men and women spend respectively on taking care of themselves. Sadly us men come a distant second, what with all our whiskey, cigars and pork chops. Recently however the fairer sex is beginning to get a run for its money. One of the reasons for this change in attitude is a magazine like Men's Health. The site, like the magazine, offers lots of great articles and tips on fitness, sex, health, lifestyle, weight loss, nutrition and of course how to look good and get laid. And with its easy to use interface and great content, we may well finally see millions of men chasing the perfect figure and catching up to the ladies in the personal care department. Lets hope we don't also adopt the eating disorders to boot. - SS
Name of Site: The Yoga Journal
URL: www.yogajournal.com
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Review: If the word 'yoga' makes you think of emaciated Indians practicing strange contortionist poses while levitating in front of their cobras, then you're not alone. But spend some time at the Yoga Journal website and I guarantee you will have a new outlook. The site offers plenty for everyone whether they are a beginner or a master, including advice, articles and plenty of poses - my favourite being the 'corpse' pose, designed for total relaxation! The clincher here for me was the Health section, where I learnt that not only can I finally rid the words 'rise and shine' of their oxymoronic undertones once and for all but through yoga I can also enjoy the same benefits as Prozac users - minus the drugs! So get yourself a skin-tight Lycra stretch body suit and get bent. - SS
Name of Site: Naturopathy Online
URL: www.naturopathyonline.com
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Review: With the prevalence of medical practitioners who instantly prescribe drugs (and powerful ones too) for virtually any problem, it's quite refreshing to look into something slightly more natural once in a while. Naturopathic medicine is a system of medicine that uses natural substances to treat the patient and recognizes that the patient's mental, emotional, and physical states must all be treated for a lasting effect, rather than merely hitting the symptom on the head with a chemical sledgehammer. The site provides you with a look at many medical conditions, treatments you can do at home, recipes for healthy living as well as plenty of good advice. So before you start pumping your body full of Ritalin, Prozac and Viagra, try something a little closer to nature. - SS
Name of Site: A to Z Fitness
URL: www.atozfitness.com
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Review: A to Z indeed. This seemingly bottomless archive of fitness fanaticism is an ideal warm up for your life-long pursuit of physical perfection. The muscle-shirted Dave has collected together more articles, tips, exercises and recipes than you could ever need, and applied the best marketing ideas to this lucrative industry portal. The Menu just goes on and on, popping out fitness software, videos, programs, guest book, even screensavers and games to power down to after a big workout. A nice balance is kept between the stuff dished out for free, and the products and services you have to shell out for. What is your health worth anyway? Ask Dave; he looks pretty happy with what this site has done for him. - SS
Name of Site: Get Fit
URL: www.getfit.com.au
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Review: Dean Piazza is looking good and feeling pumped and ready to get your abs rippling as he takes you through this website workout. There are some fundamental design problems with this site, like multiple looks, inconsistent menus, pop-up subscribe box and repetitive audio on the main page, but if you look beyond that to the content, you might realise why this site has, despite all this, won numerous awards. Personalised online training programs, an exercise library, tips, Q&As and a shining testament to Dean's success - a gallery of before/after shots of his clients. The guts, or lack thereof, speak for themselves. - SS
Name of Site: Health Fitness
URL: healthfitness.com.au
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Review: A team of qualified health professionals and graphic artists have banded together to create their vision of the best fitness site on earth. Not a bad effort really - home grown and without millions of corporate dollars to help - they provide a wide selection of services and information to get you expanding your life, and reducing your body mass index. They have also conceived of a fitness directory, to help other fitness service providers find their place in cyberspace, and keep the dream alive for an increasing army of fitness freaks. - SS
Name of Site: Fitness and Freebies
URL: www.fitnessandfreebies.com
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Review: Just what I need as my midriff spreads ever-outward writing these here reviews; a one-stop health shop. This strange mix of health and Christian links will keep your mind and your soul in check. A collection of recipes, health articles, charts, diets, training manuals and e-books should be more than enough to get the ball rolling. They even give you little graphics to stick on your website to boast about how many pounds you have lost this month - now that's motivation. Yes there are plenty of freebies, but of course a website doesn't grow on trees, so why not order a few books to help them along. When I get enough books, I'll finally wrench myself out of this chair and use the pile of books for some step-aerobics. - SS
Name of Site: Teen Body Building
URL: www.teenbodybuilding.com
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Review: If you watch the news too much you'll probably start thinking that life for a teenager is just one gang war after another. A look at this site and you'll be even more convinced. Teens bulking up to the size of nightclub bouncers is a little disconcerting, but no doubt they will feel much more confident when faced with a drug deal gone bad or a turf war with a rival gang. Seriously this site is a very popular and inspirational site for any teen who is into self-improvement in the physical realm. Dozens of highly successful teen bodybuilders provide help and role modelling to the kids who want to achieve that perfect bod. When you turn 20, you can click through to the bodybuilding.com main site to stay on track for a life of power lifting. - SS
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