19.8.11

Top 12 Yoga tips to remember

  1. The best time for practicing Yoga is in the morning. It is the only time when the mind is calm, and fresh and the body movements can be performed with considerable ease and vigor.
  2. Never attempt to practice yoga while under the influence of alcohol or drugs (including prescribed drugs) which may alter your ability to stay alert to your physical capacities and could result in injury.
  3. To practice Yoga you must choose a place which is calm, quiet, ventilated, dust free, moisture free and distraction free.
  4. Before starting Yoga, you must clear your bowels and bladder; clean your nostrils and throat of all mucus. You must also drink a glass of lukewarm water.
  5. Like all other work outs you must begin with easy poses, thereafter you can advance to the tough ones. Be systematic.
  6. Listen to your body, and if you feel burning sensations or otherwise injury, stop. Don't wait for the teacher's instructions.
  7. Yoga must energize and not cause weariness and depression.
  8. You must take breaks in between if a particular step or exercise proves tiring.
  9. Your diet should be a balanced and you should eat after an interval of 4 hours. The quantity of food should be such that it satisfies your appetite. Over eating and fasting should be avoided.
  10. Yoga clothing should be loose and as comfortable as possible. Form-fitting cotton/Lycra pants and shirts are the best.
  11. While performing Yoga your breathing should be long and deep. You must remember to keep your mouth close and inhale and exhale only through the nose.
  12. You should always keep a Yoga mat made of some comfortable materials.

22.10.10

Healthy diet and fitness tips

It is common knowledge that poor diet is a decisive factor in many conditions and diseases, including obesity, certain types of cancer and heart disease. The link between good health and good nutrition has been well established, and interest in nutrition and its impact on individual performance is now a science in itself. With obesity rates rising at an alarming rate more and more patients are seeking help to keep their weight down and their health intact.

Basics of a Healthy Diet

What’s in a healthy diet? It’s hard to know these days, isn’t it? Regardless of the type of diet you eat, most all nutrition professionals agree on three basic concepts:

Balance
Providing balance in your diet involves an intentional inclusion of different foods in proportion to each other based on the value that each food has to your total goal. For some, food choices might include a specific macronutrient balance. Most health organizations recommend a diet consisting of a balance from Carbohydrate at 55-65%, Protein at 10-15% and Fats at no higher than 30% of total calories. Other programs sometimes recommend that the nutrient balances be altered to a 40: 30: 30% or 75: 15: 10% Carbohydrate: Protein: Fat total calorie percent balance, respectively. Your goal shoudnt be only to have low fat diet. Lastly, balance refers to choosing healthier foods more often than foods that are less healthy.

Moderation
With obesity incidence growing at epidemic rates, one of the biggest concerns for should be portion control. Moderation first involves learning how much food is enough and how much is too much. Many dieting programs are very successful simply because they are very good at helping clients learn to plan food portion sizes appropriately. Because the feeling of fullness in the stomach can take as long as twenty minutes to register to the brain, it is important to regulate how much food is ingested before waiting for a full-feeling. Moderation, therefore, also involves learning the distinct difference between hunger satisfaction and fullness.

Variation
All healthy diets involve the inclusion of several food-types. The primary reason for this is health. Including a wide-variety of foods increases your likelihood of obtaining the required amounts of essential nutrients. It is well recognized that vitamin and mineral composition is food-specific. While some fruits are high in vitamin C, they are low in Calcium. Also, variation helps to avoid food-boredom: trying new foods can be interesting and exciting.

4.10.10

Do It Yourself Home Gym

You have been thinking of setting up a home Gym for a long time, but the high cost of home Gym machines is stopping you from doing it. Don't worry here are some ideas for you to start a Home Gym with minimum expenditure. This DO-It-Yourself Gym is as effective in enhancing your Fitness as any other home Gym Machines. It helps in training and increasing  Flexibility, Cardiovascular endurance and Muscular Strength. You can find the required items easily in your local sports shop.

Rowing.
This can be done with the help of the exercise bands. Sitting on the floor with your legs extended, loop elastic band under arches of feet and hold the ends in each hand. Start with arms extended forward. Keeping your back straight and shoulders down, pull your elbows back slowly, contracting shoulder blades. Hold for 2 seconds; release slowly. Repeat. Start with easy resistance and gradually increase the difficulty. If you feel that the band is stretched too much try using a band with higher resistance. Keep the band at its normal width so that it doesn't cut into your hands, feet, or ankles. After stretching the band, release it slowly, but not completely. Wrap the band securely around your hand or foot so it won't slip. When an exercise requires that one end is fixed, choose an object that won't move, such as a pole or heavy piece of furniture.

Jumping Ropes or skipping
You must have seen Professional boxers jumping ropes while they train, that's because it helps in increasing cardiovascular endurance. Skipping or Jumping rope is great exercise for adults as well as kids. All you need is a rope and good shoes to start. But first read on these instructions.

As a way to build cardiovascular endurance, jumping rope can be as good as jogging, but is lesser in impact, since you should jump only a little off the ground. It helps improve coordination, speed, and agility. If you engage in a sport that requires bursts of speed and power such as tennis or basketball, jumping rope can be particularly beneficial. It burns a lot of calories by working out the muscles in the legs, shoulders, chest, and forearms.Always Check the rope length before starting, it should not be to short neither too long. As a rule the handle of the rope should come till your armpit. Wear shoes which have good support. It's best to jump on wooden floor, as found in gym, but a lawn or a mat works well, too. Concrete is too hard and increases the risk of injury, but if your shoes are good enough you should be able to jump anywhere.

While jumping land with your knees slightly bent. Keep your posture erect, shoulders back, and abdomen tucked in. Slow down if you get too tired. Jumping rope can elevate your heart rate very quickly.

Elastic or TheraBands
Elastic exercise bands are the best bet for you to begin strength training. They've been used by physio-therapists for years. These are also known as therabands. These are cheap, portable, and versatile, these long, wide bands provide the resistance you need to work your muscles. They often come with booklets to make your work easy. They are supplied in eight colors and each colored band have different level of resistance. These can also be cut in required sizes and attached to a fixed object. You can choose the band depending on the resistance you want. You can strengthen and tone all your major muscles with them.

Physio-Balls
The big therapy ball—also called a physio-, Swiss, or gym ball—has been used for long time in Switzerland. Now these balls can be seen in gyms and physiotherapy offices. Unlike the medicine balls these are filled with air and relatively soft and, they cushion you as you stretch. They come in different sizes, for people of different heights. For instance, a 65-centimeter (about 24-inch) ball is recommended for those between 5'8" and 6'. Inflated with a simple pump.

Exercises like strengthening, stretches on the ball, warm-up and cool-down can be performed using them. Ball exercise are ideal when there is need to perform exercise of multiple muscle groups. For instance, by simply sitting and bouncing on the ball, you work your hamstrings, quadriceps, abdominals, and back muscles. Add arm movements, and you also get an upper-body workout. The main benefits of physio-balls are they help in improving your coordination, balance, and posture.When you sit on the ball, as you would a chair, your thighs should be parallel to the ground. Don't wear pins or objects that might puncture the ball. Make sure you have enough room so that if you lose your balance you are not injured. If you are older and/or have poor balance, start off with someone who will stand alongside you and make sure you don't fall off the ball.

Medicine balls
For a different kind of ball workout, try medicine balls. Leather versions used to be popular among trainers and athletes in the older days. Today these weighted balls, dubbed "plyoballs" or "body balls," are usually made of polyurethane and/or vinyl.

What you do with a medicine ball is called plyometric exercise. This involves stretching a muscle (as when you squat before you jump to shoot a basket) and then contracting it suddenly or "explosively" as you jump. You can hold the ball above your chest to make your sit-up routine more strenuous. Or substitute it for hand weights while doing aerobic dance. Or play toss or keep-away with one or two partners. Plyometrics can help in building muscle strength, thus increasing power. In the beginning use a small, lightweight ball. Vary your workout to avoid overuse injuries or soreness. For advanced or intense plyometric exercises, consult a trainer.

7.7.07

Motivate to Exercise

We all know how frustrating it is when we go to the gym, but don’t see our body changing. It can be discouraging to do all that hard work and not see any physical change. Just remember these points to motivate yourself and get the results you are looking for....

You won't see results when (during) you work out because the change in your body comes when you're resting which is why it's so important to factor recovery time in to your training. So give rest to your body by alternately exercising them.

A good combination of cardio and weights/resistance training will bring about the results you are looking for. Many people make the mistake of doing cardio alone or weights alone. When combined, the cardio will burn the fat and the weights build the muscle.

If you're eating sensibly and exercising you'll see results eventually. Exercise is good for your body on many levels, but even if you exercise moderately and eat right, you should still see results of fat loss.

The diet hold back 90% of the people from seeing the results that they desire. going to the gym is easy, eating healthy meals day in and day out is not. The healthier the diet and the more whole foods it contains the greater the positive effect there will be on your system. So try to eat healthy food as much as you can.

I think we need to remember that for the average person, this is a long slow process; but this really is good way to lose fat and build muscle.

For Seeing results you require determination to improve ones long-term health. Most people give up so easily, Getting real results takes time, especially if you are not used to an active life style. When you first start to diet and exercise regularly, your body has to adjust to this new lifestyle. But if you are persistent and you keep up with eating well and exercising, eventually you will see results. Exercise is all about determination.

2.7.07

How to Gain Weight

Lot of people want to gain weight but are unable todo so. Try these steps and see the results yourself.

To gain weight you must eat more calories than your body burns off, so EAT MORE!

Increase your protein intake and reduce your simple carbohydrate intake. Without protein your body cannot build new muscle.

Drink a lot of fluids that supply nutrients and calories; milk, fresh fruit juices and energy drinks are good examples.

Start Weight training! Get in the gym and workout! This is another important step to how to gain weight, so make sure you are doing it correctly.

Use heavy weights and low reps, rest 3 minutes between each set.

Split your exercise routine by following this breakup...
Day 1: Chest, shoulders and triceps
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Back, and Bicep
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Legs and abs
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest

Track your progress! Weighing yourself once a week is extremely important, but so is figuring out if the weight you are gaining is muscle or fat. Dont fall in the habbit of checking the weight daily, as daily fluctuations can give a false impression that no progress is being made and then show a sudden increase.

It might take a long time, usually a few months, for the weight to actually show. Some people get frustrated and quit when they fail to see drastic results. Your body will only responds to a consistent schedule. No weight gain programme will work for you if you are not regular.