7 exercises to keep firm body!

(Real Simple) -- To maintain your muscles, aim for 20 minutes of strength-training exercises two to three times a week -- with at least one day off in between workouts so your muscles have time to rest, recover, and grow.

Liz Neporent, an exercise physiologist and the president of Wellness 360, a New York City-based corporate-wellness-consulting company, suggests the following seven exercises, which work most of the major muscles in your body.

Do one to three sets of 8 to 15 repetitions of the exercises, resting no more than 45 seconds between sets to keep the workout challenging. If you haven't used weights before or if you're out of shape, start with light weights (when they're called for) of two to five pounds and do fewer sets.

Squat: Works buttocks and thighs

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, weight slightly back on your heels, hands on your hips. Pull your abdominals in, standing up tall with square shoulders and a lifted chest.

• Sit back and down, as if there's a chair directly behind you. Lower as far as you can without leaning your upper body more than a few inches forward. Don't allow your knees to stick out past your toes.

• Straighten your legs and stand back up. Be careful not to lock your knees at the top of the movement.

One-arm row: Works upper and middle back and shoulders

• Stand to the left of a chair, feet hip-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in your right hand with your palm facing in. Pull your abdominals in and bend forward from the hips so your back has a slight arch and you are roughly parallel to the floor, knees slightly bent. Put your left hand on the chair's seat for balance. Tilt your chin toward your chest so your neck is in line with the rest of your spine. Your right hand will be in front of your right shin.

• Pull your right arm up along the side of your body until your elbow points to the ceiling and your hand brushes against your waist.

• Slowly lower the weight back down. Complete the reps, then switch sides. Real Simple: Menus for every body

Modified push-up: Works chest, abdominals, shoulders, and arms

• Lie on your stomach, knees bent and ankles crossed. Place your palms on the floor a bit to the side and in front of your shoulders. Tuck your chin a few inches into your chest so your forehead faces the floor.

• Straighten your arms and lift your body so you are balanced on your palms and knees, abdominals tight. Be careful not to lock your elbows.

• Bend your elbows and lower your entire body at once. Rather than trying to touch your chest to the floor, lower just until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Push back up.

Shoulder press: Works shoulders, arms

• Hold a dumbbell in each hand and sit up tall on a chair that has firm back support. Place your feet on the floor, hip-width apart. Pull your abdominals in so there is a slight gap between the small of your back and the back of the chair.

• With palms forward, bend the elbows and raise the dumbbells up so they are level with your ears. Elbows should be at or just below shoulder height.

• Straighten arms up over your head, without locking elbows, then slowly lower to start.

Bicep curls: Works biceps

• Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet hip-width apart. Let your arms hang down at your sides with your palms facing in. Pull your abdominals in, stand tall, and keep your knees relaxed.

• Curl your right arm up, fist close to your shoulder, twisting your palm so that it faces the front of your shoulder at the top of the movement. Slowly lower the dumbbell back down, then repeat with your left arm. Continue alternating until you've completed the set. (One rep consists of a bicep curl with each arm.)Real Simple: Five 15-minute workouts

Kick-backs: Works triceps

• Stand to the left of a chair. Hold a dumbbell in your right hand, feet hip-width apart. Lean forward at the hips until your upper body is at a 45-degree angle to the floor. Place your free hand on top of the chair for support. Bend your right elbow so that your upper arm is parallel to the floor, your forearm perpendicular to it, and your palm facing in. Keep your elbow close to your waist. Pull your abdominals in and don't lock your knees.

• Keeping your upper arm still, straighten your arm behind you until the end of the dumbbell is pointing down. Slowly bend your arm to lower the weight for one rep. When you've completed the set, repeat with your left arm.

Plank: Works abdominals, shoulders, chest, lower back, buttocks, thighs

• Lie on the floor, hands clasped in front of you roughly under your forehead, toes tucked under.

• Press up to balance on your forearms and toes. Pull your abs in so your lower back does not sag and your hips do not drop.

• Focus on keeping your torso straight and your abs pulled in to support you. Hold for 10 counts.

Google Kisi Ko Nahi Chhodega!!!

Google ventures into health records biz

Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

Google will test a new service that will allow the Internet search leader to store patients' medical records.

The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service, which won't be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.

Google views its expansion into health records management as a logical extension because its search engine already processes millions of requests from people trying to find more information about an injury, illness or recommended treatment.

But the health venture also will provide more fodder for privacy watchdogs who believe Google already knows too much about the interests and habits of its users as its computers log their search requests and store their e-mail discussions.

Prodded by the criticism, Google last year introduced a new system that purges people's search records after 18 months. In a show of its privacy commitment, Google also successfully rebuffed the U.S. Justice Department's demand to examine millions of its users' search requests in a court battle two years ago.

The Mountain View, California-based company hasn't specified a timetable for unveiling the health service, which has been the source of much speculation for the past two years. Marissa Mayer, the Google executive overseeing the health project, has previously said the service would debut in 2008.

Contacted Wednesday, a Google spokesman declined to elaborate on its plans. The Associated Press learned about the pilot project from the Cleveland Clinic, a not-for-profit medical center founded 87 years ago.

The clinic already keeps the personal health records of more than 120,000 patients on its own online service called MyChart. Patients who transfer the information to Google would still be able to get the data quickly even if they were no longer being treated by the Cleveland Clinic.

"We believe patients should be able to easily access and manage their own health information," Mayer said in a statement supplied by the Cleveland Clinic.

The Cleveland Clinic decided to work with Google "to create a more efficient and effective national health care system," said C. Martin Harris, the medical center's chief information officer.

Google isn't the first high-tech heavyweight to set up an online filing cabinet in an effort make it easier for people to get their medical records after they change doctors or health insurance plans.

Rival Microsoft Corp. last year introduced a similar service called HealthVault, and AOL co-founder Steve Case is backing Revolution Health, which also offers online tools for managing personal health histories.

The third-party services are troublesome because they aren't covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, which just issued a cautionary report on the topic.

Passed in 1996, HIPAA established strict standards that classify medical information as a privileged communication between a doctor and patient. Among other things, the law requires a doctor to notify a patient when subpoenaed for a medical record.

That means a patient who agrees to transfer medical records to an external health service run by Google or Microsoft could be unwittingly making it easier for the government or some other legal adversary to obtain the information, Dixon said.

If the medical records aren't protected by HIPAA, the information conceivably also could be used for marketing purposes.

Google, which runs the Internet's most lucrative ad network, typically bases its marketing messages on search requests and the content on Web pages and e-mail contained in its computers.

It's not clear how Google intends to make money from its health service. The company sometimes introduces new products without ads just to give people more reason to visit its Web site, betting the increased traffic will boost its profits in the long run.