If you’ve gotten in the habit of staying up late, eating into the wee hours of the morning may have become routine. However, you can get back on a normal schedule where your diet is concerned and avoid late-night binges without too much trouble so long as you follow a few simple guidelines.
Working the arms to ‘tone’ and build muscle is one of the most popular activities at the gym for many people, and it just so happens to be an exercise that you can do in your car. Stash a small dumbbell under one of your seats or in the glove compartment, and you can do sets of bicep curls while you’re stuck in traffic to make productive use of your time. The sitting position is perfect for maintaining posture while you do this simple exercise.
I don’t however, recommend curling at full speed on the highway. Instead, the following tips will teach you how to exercise in your car without any equipment at all.
The only real caveat with this intense form of exercise is that it is all too easy to injure yourself if you’re not careful. Since you are pushing yourself to your physical limits with timed circuits that require you to fit as many reps into the allotted time as possible, you’ll find that you tire long before you’re through. So it’s not only important to know your limits, but also to observe proper form in every exercise. Here’s why.
While many recent reports point to a decrease in the use of methamphetamine over the past few years, some experts believe addiction trends are manifesting in the form of meth mayhem. Drug use is on the rise across the United States, including continued patterns in the dangerous stimulant drug. Obtaining a modern-day understanding of meth addiction provides insight that could help us detect and prevent tragedy.
Meth mayhem is not only affecting rural communities but is plaguing society as a whole and the idea of a “meth user,” is not necessarily always correct. In fact, many adolescents are using this drug because of its availability and price.
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The most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, but you might have noticed in years past that declaring a commitment to this end rarely results in a comprehensive plan that will actually help you to reach your goal. Perhaps you sign up for a diet program and even attend a few meetings before getting too busy to go. Or maybe you take advantage of Obama care and see a doctor. Or maybe you join a gym and shell out major money for access to equipment that you never end up using.
Whatever you have done in the past, you can make 2013 the year you turn it all around.
The trick, in many cases, is not to put such an emphasis on the number you see on the scale, but rather to address your health and fitness in a way that provides you with other forms of success. So here are just a few things to consider when setting your goals for the coming year.
Okay, so there is a lot of hubbub circulating about the obesity rate amongst adults and the concurrent rise in heart disease, diabetes, and more. But these aren’t necessarily a byproduct of your weight so much as your lifestyle.
What you really need to address is not the readout on the scale, but rather the bad habits that brought you to this pass.
While classical music may help you to focus during work or study (or put you to sleep at night) and metal or alternative might get you through your daily commute, these genres don’t necessarily lend themselves to improving your exercise routine. This begs the question: are certain types of music better suited to working out than others?
For most people, the answer is an emphatic yes. But which types of music will best suit your particular needs when it comes to pumping up your exercise routine? There are a few things you’ll need to consider before you settle on a genre, an artist, or even a specific song title to add to your playlist.
The first thing you’ll like want to address is the type of exercise you’re doing since various musical styles will apply to different forms of activity. For example, a person who takes the dog for a long walk around the park every evening after work may choose to listen to oldies that they can sing along to, while those who go jogging might prefer club music or techno because the tempo helps them to keep up a certain pace.
They may even plan an entire playlist to help them speed up and slow down periodically. But it could be that neither of these types of music lends themselves particularly well to a relaxing yoga session, which could require a soundtrack of new age, atmospheric tunes, sans lyrics. As you can see, the type of workout you choose to do could dictate suitable genres of music.
The type of degenerative change that occurs in our eyes in older age is known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It is one of the most prominent reasons vision impairment occurs in aging population, affecting 1 in every 4 people who are 65 or older. Macular degeneration occurs as your retina degenerates as a result of aging, causing you to face visibility problems, especially during night.
Fortunately, today measures can be taken to prevent such changes from taking place. Preventing macular degeneration related with aging is basically a science known as anti-aging. The common knowledge of this science is that we must adopt a healthy lifestyle in order to improve our health condition. But to your amazement, adopting a healthy lifestyle can even have a positive impact on your vision too.
Not every cough and sniffle calls for a visit to the doctor’s office, nor does every scrape and burn necessitate an expensive trip to the emergency room. In most cases you can tell if a home remedy will do the trick or if professional medical care is advisable, but you will certainly have occasions where you’re just not sure if the symptoms will pass or if you need professional help.
Many people would probably appreciate having ways to determine their relative state of health between annual physicals or check-ups in order to see if they need additional care or alternately, if their efforts to improve health and fitness are paying off. So here are just a few simple health tests that you can perform on your own at home to check yourself out.
Fevers are indicative of an infection, or rather, they are the result of your body fighting an infection. In most cases there is no cause for concern. Although a fever will make you feel pretty awful, the majority are low-grade and break within a matter of hours or just a couple of days.
If you don’t know about water, here is the 411. Read some previous articles like:
How much water should you drink in a day?
How to increase water absorption.
When you are done with those, take a look at this fun graphic:
So if you don’t know, well now ya know. Planet Fitness may judge you as being a Lunk if you carry a gallon of water around, but have you seen their employees? Yeah, if you want to be a pasty skinned ShitFitness employee, don’t drink water. Otherwise – carry your gallon jug around with pride. =)
w00t! Lift w8 every day
The results of crash diets are dire. Those people trying to lose weight by sacrificing their nutrition are actually punishing themselves. They are constantly living in a condition of hunger which eventually leads them to feel exhausted all the time. Worse, it can lead to collapse and many other health risks. Crash dieting can literally make someone crash.
Those who intend to shed those extra fats in their body must realize that there are weight loss plans which do not lose the essential nutrients of the body. Healthy choices in food and proper exercises are the major keys in losing weight the healthy way.
For beginners, it must be understood that a variety in the foods a person eat is actually essential. One should not be easily taken by the low carb/high protein diet mindset which some fitness people propagate. Maximizing protein intake, in and of itself, is not a balanced diet. Sure low carbs and high protein can help retain and build muscle while simultaneously losing fat, but a diet consisting of, for example, 5 meals of chicken and broccoli each day, is not a healthy diet and can actually make you sick.
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The growing health issues like heart issues and obesity can be curbed by keeping your body fit through daily and proper exercises. Getting into a habit of regular exercise can lead you good health and increase your energy levels. It also alleviates your stress level to a large extent keeping you fit and fine.
Ironically, despite all the importance, exercises are still not considered as a must activity in daily schedule since people find it hard and boring. Regardless of the hard and easy thing you see in the exercises, putting into its proper habit is important rather than doing it haphazardly. There are couples of benefits of having a daily exercise schedule. Let’s explore them.
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No offense to doctors, but in my experience, when it comes to fitness and nutrition…
Scientists > Doctors
And then of course there are the scientists who ARE doctors. Usually you can’t go wrong there.
Many trying to maintain a healthy diet struggle to understand how good nutrition works and/or how it should be applied. This confusion is often compounded by conflicting “expert” nutritional advice. However, the simplest approach to good nutrition is remembering that all nutritional substances should be ingested to promote health and prevent disease.
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It’s also important to remember that food choices aren’t just about weight, as food choices can greatly reduce or increase the likelihood of a person developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. As far as overall health, food plays a major role in energy, memory, mood, and sleep.
Since good nutrition hinges on life-long lifestyle choices, it will never involve starving, cutting out vital food groups, or completely depriving yourself from food that is enjoyable. None of the above is congruent with sustainability, and is the main reason that “fad diets” never result in good nutrition or a maintainable weight. Good nutrition has everything to do with eating smart foods…in a smart way. Try the following nutrition tips to get you on the path to smart eating:
Don’t abandon unhealthy choices all at once, as this will usually lead to binge eating. Focus on slowly replacing unhealthy food sources with healthier choices. For example, one might gradually replace tater chips with fresh vegetable chips. Try to take existing unhealthy recipes and alter unhealthy ingredients one at a time. For example, a recipe that calls for butter or vegetable oil might be amended to utilize olive oil. Even a simple sandwich can be altered to be more nutritious by changing white bread to whole grain, ham to turkey breast, and mayo to mustard. Eventually, you will be able to make every food choice nutritionally sound.
Stop and think about the food – Am I eating this to sustain me or soothe me? Food is too often used as an emotional crutch or mindless action. It can be helpful to disassociate food with cars, television, and computers. It’s easy to just gulp something down when your mind is on driving vs. actually eating. It’s also easy to mindlessly eat when distracted by a television and computer. Whenever possible eat at a table and take the time to properly chew and savor food. Keep in mind that it takes 20 minutes for the brain to realize that the stomach is full; so, eat slow and stop eating before actually feeling full. Plan meals out to include several small meals throughout the day, which will help keep energy and metabolism up for weight loss.
Fitness training is just as essential as any of the food groups and dieting tips. Optimal health can’t be achieved through exercise without healthy eating or healthy eating without exercise. A simple routine strength training program should be included in all exercise regimens. It’s important to start the training with the proper resistance size. A good guide is a size that fatigues you after about 12 repetitions. If you aren’t able to use correct form, that too is a sign that the weight is too heavy. Start out with a twice a week fitness plan with 4 to 5 sets of 12 reps with or without fitness equipment. Many professional trainers recommend aiming for muscular failure, where the muscle can’t possibly do anymore, after the first month of strength training.
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A lot has been made about the importance of protein in building muscle, but more could be said about the importance of fruits and vegetables in this regard. The fact of the matter is that fruits and vegetables contain a lot of important vitamins and minerals that facilitate muscle growth.
One of these vitamins important to muscle growth which is often times overlooked is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is found in fresh fruits and vegetables such as oranges, pineapples, grapefruit, cabbage, broccoli, okra and spinach to name a few.
Vitamin C speeds up recovery of your muscles after an intense workout, and prevents injuries and inflammations that might keep one away from the gym.
During weightlifting your body is placed under a tremendous amount of stress, but Vitamin C present in fruits and vegetables help to boost your immune system to fight against possible infections and muscle damage.
Another great benefit from Vitamin C is the reduction of cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced when the body undergoes extreme stress like weightlifting, and is responsible for the breakdown of muscle tissue. Therefore, the less cortisol your body produces the better.
 Health Benefits of Bodybuilding |
There are many reasons to build a stronger body that most people wouldn’t think of when they picture bodybuilding. Bodybuilding can be a very healthy hobby for both your mind and your body.
Despite the misconceptions of the general public, bodybuilding is not necessarily all about eating whey protein, lifting heavy weights, and oiled-up posing in a thong on a stage. There are a ton of great health benefits as well.
These are just some of the many unexpected benefits of bodybuilding:
The prevalence of stroke victims in the US has increased in recent years. A study analyzed the history of over 8 million hospital patients from 1995 to 2008 has identified a 33% increased risk of suffering from a stroke if you are between the ages of 5 and 44.
Contributing factors were found to be diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), blood lipid disorders, tobacco use, and obesity. People with one or more of those factors have a greater chance of developing an ischemic stroke, which is caused by blood clots. High blood pressure was reported in 50% of the stroke victims, and being male and over the age of 35 puts you at an even greater risk than anyone else. Great!
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I don’t have the time or patience to write a new article today or for the past week, so here are a couple links you can read with decent info about recent medical advances that might help keep you healthier. These new gadgets range from stem cells that can rebuild damaged heart tissue, to intestinal liners that restrict the absorption of excess calories, to bacteria that will keep you from ever getting tooth decay. As you read this great news, just imagine the kinds of devices and genetic tools we’ll have in just 10 more years.
5 Medical Innovations That Will Build Muscle or Burn Fat
5 Medical Advances That Sound too Good to be True
Also, I’m sorry I haven’t been answering questions lately or posting any good new content. As always I have many great plans in the works, but life is just taking precedence over maintaining a blog right now. Hoping to get back at it full time really soon.
 Rick Kaselj |
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer that focuses on helping clients overcome their injuries. Rick’s specialization is the shoulder and did his Masters’ degree project on designing effective exercises for the rotator cuff. He shares with rotator cuff injury suffers and fitness professionals what he has learned in school and from his clients and has put it all into the Shoulder Pain Solved Program.
Thanks for all the feedback and voting in the last post.
Now I got a better idea of how I can help you.
Lets get to what you can do to get rid of shoulder pain during your lifts.
| Rick Kaselj |
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer that focuses on helping clients overcome their injuries. Rick’s specialization is the shoulder and did his Masters’ degree project on designing effective exercises for the rotator cuff. He shares with rotator cuff injury suffers and fitness professionals what he has learned in school and from his clients and has put it all into the Effective Rotator Cuff Exercise Program.
This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts by Rick about injury prevention and rehabilitation. Although you won’t learn about the finer details of effective rotator cuff exercises or knee injury prevention in this post, I do hope it will encourage you to think about your own aches and pains.
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Weather experts have predicted that it’s going to get up to 105 degrees today, where I live in southern NH. Those crazy temperatures have prompted me to write this quick note about exercising in the summer heat.
If you are dedicated to fitness, that means you are exercising even when it’s 110 degrees outside in the middle of summer. Unfortunately, that level of dedication can get you into trouble if you don’t make safe decisions. The kind of trouble that can put you in the hospital or worse.
Here are 3 mistakes that people commonly make when they exercise in the dead heat of summer.
Cotton is your summer nemesis. When you exercise, cotton clothing will hold sweaty moisture, which can cause chaffing and rashes. Cotton socks swell with moisture, causing them to lose their shape, which can lead to blisters – the deadly enemy of lower body training. Sweaty clothing also weighs you down, making exercise harder, which causes you to sweat more. It is a dangerous cycle.
