Do These Five Things To Keep Your Heart Healthy

 

You know that exercise and a good diet can keep your heart healthy. But what else can you do to keep your ticker going strong? Here, cardiothoracic surgeon Marc Gillinov, MD, recommends five key things you need to do every day to help your heart work most efficiently. Incorporate these habits into your lifestyle and your heart health will be the best it can be for you.

1. Eat healthy fats, NOT trans fats. We need fats in our diet, including saturated and polyunsaturated and unsaturated fats. One fat we don’t need is trans fat, which is known to increase your risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke over a lifetime. This is because trans fat clogs your arteries by raising your bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and lowering your good cholesterol levels (HDL). By cutting them from your diet, you improve the blood flow throughout your body. So, what are trans fats? They are industry-produced fats often used in packaged baked goods, snack foods, margarines and fried fast foods to add flavor and texture. TIP: Read the labels on all foods. Trans fat appears on the ingredients list as partially hydrogenated oils. Look for 0 percent trans fat. Make it a point to avoid eating foods with trans fat.
2. Practice good dental hygiene, especially flossing your teeth daily. Dental health is a good indication of overall health, including your heart, because those who have periodontal (gum) disease often have the same risk factors for heart disease. Studies continue on this issue, but many have shown that bacteria in the mouth involved in the development of gum disease can move into the bloodstream and cause an elevation in C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the blood vessels. These changes may in turn, increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. TIP: Floss and brush your teeth daily to ward off gum disease. It’s more than cavities you may have to deal with if you are fighting gum disease.
3. Get enough sleep. Sleep is an essential part of keeping your heart healthy. If you don’t sleep enough, you may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease no matter your age or other health habits. One study looking at 3,000 adults over the age of 45 found that those who slept fewer than six hours per night were about twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack as people who slept six to eight hours per night. Researchers believe sleeping too little causes disruptions in underlying health conditions and biological processes, including blood pressure and inflammation. TIP: Make sleep a priority. Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep most nights. If you have sleep apnea, you should be treated as this condition is linked to heart disease and arrhythmias.
4. Don’t sit for too long at one time. In recent years, research has suggested that staying seated for long periods of time is bad for your health no matter how much exercise you do. This is bad news for the many people who sit at sedentary jobs all day. When looking at the combined results of several observational studies that included nearly 800,000 people, researchers found that in those who sat the most, there was an associated 147 percent increase in cardiovascular events and a 90 percent increase in death caused by these events. In addition, sitting for long periods of time (especially when traveling) increases your risk of deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot). TIP: Experts say it’s important to move throughout the day. Park farther away from the office, take a few shorter walks throughout the day and/or use a standing work station so you can move up and down. And remember to exercise on most days.
5. Avoid secondhand smoke like the plague. Studies show that the risk of developing heart disease is about 25 to 30 percent higher for people who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work. According to the American Heart Association, exposure to tobacco smoke contributes to about 34,000 premature heart disease deaths and 7,300 lung cancer deaths each year. And nonsmokers who have high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol have an even greater risk of developing heart disease when they’re exposed to secondhand smoke. This is because the chemicals emitted from cigarette smoke promote the development of plaque buildup in the arteries. TIP: Be firm with smokers that you do not want to be around environmental smoke — and keep children away from secondhand smoke. 

Follow these five tips and you’ll be doing your heart a favor. You’ll feel better and be able to stay active with a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Women’s Health and Weight Loss Tips

 

Women’s Health and Weight Loss Tip #3: The Importance of Iron in a Woman’s Diet

One of the biggest weaknesses of the traditional commercial diet is the lack of iron that exists in its stringent and often excessively limited eating guidelines. In order to lose weight, many unsuspecting women get bamboozled into taking part in weight loss programs that cut out many of the nutrients that they need. Iron is one of the primary
casualties of such diets and weight loss plans.

The plot thickens for women in particular due to the fact that their bodies regularly lose iron during menstruation. Therefore, eating a low-calorie, low-iron diet in an effort to lose weight only makes the problem more severe.

It is generally suggested that women supplement their diets with an iron supplement such as the Vitality multivitamin offered by Melaleuca, the Wellness Company. This is particularly important during periods of heavy exercise and training that are typical aspects of any weight loss program or general effort to lose weight even when a special program is not in use.

One thing to be on guard for, however, is excessive iron supplementation by iron-deficient (non-anemic) women. There is a disorder known as hemosiderosis which results from large deposits of iron made in the liver that causes a glitch in the proper metabolism of the iron itself. Avoiding prolonged large doses will eliminate the risk of this particular disorder.

Below are a few recommendations from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) that will help you to make sure you get the adequate amount of iron intake in your daily diet, whether on a program to lose weight or not:

-> Eat foods with a high vitamin C content with all meals. Vitamin C aids in the absorption of iron. (examples: salsa; chili peppers; oranges)

-> Include dark meat chick and/or turkey in the training diet. Both of these are rich in iron

-> Vegetable proteins such as split pea soup or chili beans with lean meat help the iron in those meats to properly absorb

-> When eating starchy carbohydrates such as cereals, breads, and pastas, gravitate to those labeled “enriched” or “fortified” for their higher iron content.

7 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Coconut Oil

 

 

It is a common misconception that coconut oil is bad for you. People all over the world are experiencing the healthy benefits of using coconut oil. It is actually one of the healthiest oils you can consume. Here are the top seven reasons why you should use coconut oil as an alternative to other common cooking oils.

1. Coconut oil doesn’t turn to fat in your body.

Unlike many other common oils, like soy (vegetable) and corn, coconut oil won’t make you fat. Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which are an easy fuel for the body to burn, without turning to fat. Most other cooking oils and fats contain long-chain triglycerides (LCT). LCT’s are usually stored as fat. Since coconut oil is a MCT, it is more easily absorbed and converted to energy quicker.

People in the tropics have relied on coconuts as a traditional staple in their diet for centuries. They consume large amounts of coconut oil every day. Instead of getting fatter, it helps them stay healthy, lean and trim. When they switch from coconut oil to our modern oils, they develop obesity and the health problems that our modern society faces.

Some other people who have known this truth for a long time are people who are in the animal feed business. When livestock are fed vegetable oils, they put on weight and produce more fatty meat. When they are fed coconut oil, they become very lean.

2. Coconut oil increases your metabolism.

Not only does coconut oil convert to energy quicker in your body, it increases your metabolism, which promotes weight loss. Because it boosts your metabolism, it helps your body burn fat more effectively.

Coconut oil may triple your calorie burn. Since coconut oil is a MCT, it is converted to energy so quickly that it creates a lot of heat. In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, MCT’s burn three times more calories for six hours after a meal than LCT’s.

The February 15, 2005 issue of Woman’s World magazine stated that coconut oil is the “underground high-metabolism secret.”

This is great news for people who have thyroid problems, since coconut oil improves sluggish thyroids by stimulating the production of extra thyroid hormones. Most other common oils, like vegetable (soy) and corn have been shown to inhibit thyroid function.

3. Coconut oil has omega 3 fatty acids.

Most cooking oils contain omega 6 fatty acids, something we get way too much of in the United States. Our omega 6 to omega 3 ratio should be 1:1 but it is more like 50:1. We need to drastically cut back our omega 6 oils and consume much more omega 3 oils to be healthy. And coconut oil is filled with these healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

4. Coconut oil gives you energy.

Because of the healthy omega 3 fatty acids and the fact that it increases the metabolism, most people that switch to coconut oil feel a burst of added energy in their daily life.

This is because coconut oil is natures richest source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT’s), which increase metabolic rates and lead to weight loss. MCT’s promote thermogenesis, which increases the body’s metabolism, producing energy.

This is because coconut oil is natures richest source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT’s), which increase metabolic rates and lead to weight loss. MCT’s promote thermogenesis, which increases the body’s metabolism, producing energy. Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia have found that adding coconut and coconut oil to their diet was helpful to them.

5. One of the best things you can use on your skin and hair is coconut oil.

Coconut oil one of the best things you can apply directly on your skin and hair. It gives temporary relief to skin problems like rashes. It aids in healing and restoring skin to a younger appearance. It has also been known to help with people who suffer from yeast infections in the skin, as well as many other skin problems.

Not only does is soften and smooth your skin, coconut oil has antioxidant properties that protect the skin from free radical damage. Coconut oil makes excellent massage oil too.

6. Coconut oil has healthy benefits that most other oils do not.

Evidence is mounting that coconut oil has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral effects when both consumed and used topically on the skin.

Most oils oxidize and turn rancid very quickly causing free radical damage in our bodies. Coconut oil is not easily oxidized and does not cause harmful free radical damage like polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Free radical damage is thought to be responsible for many ailments in our body from arthritis to increased susceptibility to cancers.

Coconut oil also helps our bodies absorb other nutrients more effectively, such as Vitamin E.

7. Coconut oil is one of the best oils you can use for cooking.

It has a higher smoke point than olive oil, which means it can take higher temperatures better. There are several healthy omega 3 oils we can choose to consume, such as flax and olive oil, but they don’t do well under the high heat we use for cooking. Coconut oil can be used in higher cooking temperatures.

It is harder for coconut oil to go rancid, unlike other cooking oils, which are usually rancid long before you even bring them home. Rancid oils cause free radical damage in the body, which is a leading cause of cancer. Coconut oil is stable for over a year at room temperature.

Because of the misinformation we have been given for years, we have lost out on the healthy benefits that coconut oil has given the people of the tropics for centuries. But now it has been rediscovered! Coconut oil is so effective, it won’t be long before we see coconut oil supplements promoted, but you can get the jump on the popular crowd and start consuming and cooking with coconut oil today!

Womens exercise: The 5 Rs Principle

 

 

This week, my gym is flooded with new faces. It’s that post-New Years craze that sends everyone to the gyms to try and fulfill that elusive but always primary goal of the New Year: lose weight and get into shape. I watched one new member make her way around through the jungle of strength training equipment last night. She moved from machine to machine doing one set here, two sets there, five repetitions here, twenty there. No rhyme or reason to it, no paper and pencil in hand, it just appeared another random attempt at a workout. What if there was a simple, straightforward way of taking a workout and figuring out exactly what should be in it? There is it’s called the 5 Rs principle.

The 5 Rs Principle can help beginning exercisers figure out what exactly goes into an effective workout. Each `R’focuses on an important element of an exercise routine that forces the beginner to look at their workouts in a holistic fashion.

RANGE of motion

Range of motion refers to how the capability of a joint to move through a prescribed set of movements. In order for a beginner to see results, each exercise should be performed from a fully stretched position of the muscle to a fully contracted position. An example: I see a lot of beginners (and people who have been around the gym long enough to know better) load up the EZ-curl bar for preacher curls and perform the exercise only lowering the bar halfway down on the eccentric portion of the exercise. Not only can this cause injury to the bicep muscle, it also doesn’t work the muscle the best way possible and limits the results of the exercise.

You’ll hear the term `range of motion’ often in reference to joint health and mobility. This is no exception in the gym. Your joints are supported by large and small muscles. In order to optimize your joint health, all the muscles surrounding the joints must be worked as well.

RESISTANCE

When you’re just starting to lift weights, how much weight to use is a huge issue. It’s unfortunate that many personal trainers will tell women to use a lighter weight so that they will “tone up” and not get bulky. This is probably the biggest myth in all of weight lifting? women who lift heavy weights will not get bulky. Don’t believe anyone who tells you this! Choose a weight that allows you to complete the exercise without sacrificing proper form but that is heavy enough that you cannot possibly perform another repetition at the end of your prescribed set of repetitions.

REPETITIONS

Another huge variable for beginning exercisers is how many repetitions to perform. Performing certain repetitions will indeed produce highly specific results. In general, low repetitions (3-8) produce greater absolute strength, medium repetitions (10-20) produce anaerobic strength endurance, and high repetitions (20-40) produce aerobic strength endurance.

Now, an ideal beginner routine will probably include sets of medium repetitions, just to allow the exerciser to learn to perform the exercise correctly, with proper form and technique and to allow her to experiment with experiencing muscle fatigue at 12-15 repetitions. As she progresses, she can experiment with different set/rep schemes customized to individual goals.

An important note is that in order to achieve the results desired from performing a certain number of repetitions is that muscular failure must be achieved within the repetition ranges above. Muscular failure means that you can’t possibly push out one more repetition no matter how hard you’re trying to do it.

REST

In general, your body needs between two to four minutes of rest between sets to prepare itself to perform another set at maximum capacity. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PC) are used by your muscle cells to contract during a weight lifting exercise. Your body needs time to regenerate these two compounds before it is ready to go again.

Unless you’re trying to develop all-out absolute strength by performing low repetitions with very heavy weight, you’re probably not going to need to wait that long between sets. Most beginners will be working within a medium repetition range and therefore do not need to wait that long between sets. One to two minutes is fine.

RECOVERY

You will not see faster or better results by working the same muscle groups day after day. As important as hard work is, recovery between workouts is even more important. Beginners should work the same muscle groups no more than two times per week, with at least forty- eight hours break between sessions. As an exerciser becomes more advanced, she will probably cut back to working each muscle group once every seven days or so.

3 Secrets and Tips For Anit-Aging

 

 

Anti-Aging, Staying Young, looking younger or just feeling younger is a multimillion dollar industry. There’s a really good reason for it. We have an ever-aging generation. This generation is one of the largest generation on the planet. Naturally, there’s a huge number of this population that do not want to grow old. Therefore, anti-aging products are rampant in the marketplace. But don’t get ‘taken’ by the unnecessary products that play on the emotions of those who wish to look young.

The following are three secrets and tips that will allow you to avoid the risks of buying certain products that are not needed.

Secret Tip #1: Feed Your Face
If you feed your face with anti-aging food on a consistent basis, you’ll find it easier to stay young. Another way to say this is to just make sure you’re not feeding your body full of junk that is sure to perpetuate the aging process. Also, know that if you try to escape the eating step, you’ll grow older faster. The body knows what it needs. Just give it to your body.

Secret Tip #2: Pick Something or Go Somewhere
In other words, get up off the couch, turn the TV off and do some anti-aging activities. This doesn’t have to be work either. Find an activity or two that you enjoy. Walk, run, weight train, ride a bike, get on a pogo stick. Do anything that causes your body to move and exert some activity. This will allow your body to stay young by stretching muscles and keeping you limber at the same time.

Secret Tip #3: Don’t Be A Party Pooper
Mentioned above for the #2 Anti-Aging Secret Tip was finding something you enjoy. That’s the whole secret of this entire article. Find something you have fun doing. Just know this, if drinking alcohol into a drunken stupor is the one thing you enjoy, you are not going stay young for very long. In fact, if you’re older in age and you’re doing this you may not even enjoy staying old. The key to the entire process of anti-aging is to treat your body right and have fun doing it.

Enjoy life, stay young mentally, emotionally, physically and you’ll see an anti-aging process that you’ll be happy about. That will give you the motivation and momentum to continue the lifestyle of anti-aging.

5 Components of Physical Fitness

 

 

Physical fitness is the ability to function effectively throughout your workday, perform your usual other activities and still have enough energy left over to handle any extra stresses or emergencies which may arise.

The components of physical fitness are:

* Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance 

 the efficiency with which the body delivers oxygen and nutrients needed for muscular activity and transports waste products from the cells.

* Muscular strength – 

The greatest amount of force a muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort.

* Muscular endurance 

 The ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform repeated movements with a sub-maximal force for extended periods of times.

* Flexibility 

 The ability to move the joints or any group of joints through an entire, normal range of motion.

* Body composition  

The percentage of body fat a person has in comparison to his or her total body mass.

Improving the first three components of fitness listed above will have a positive impact on body composition and will result in less fat. Excessive body fat detracts from the other fitness components, reduces performance, detracts from appearance, and negatively affects your health.

Factors such as speed, agility, muscle power, eye-hand coordination, and eye-foot coordination are classified as components of “motor” fitness. These factors most affect your athletic ability. Appropriate training can improve these factors within the limits of your potential. A sensible weight loss and fitness program seeks to improve or maintain all the components of physical and motor fitness through sound, progressive, mission specific physical training.

Principles of Exercise

Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.

These basic principles of exercise must be followed.

Regularity

To achieve a training effect, you must exercise often. You should exercise each of the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a sensible diet.

Progression

The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.

Balance

To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others.

Variety

Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.

Specificity

Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, people become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it does not improve a 2-mile-run time as much as a running program does.

Recovery

A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.

Overload

The work load of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body in order to bring about a training effect.

5 Great Tips On Exercise

 

Have exercise misconceptions prevented you from starting an exercise program? Clear up any confusion and let these exercise tips improve your workout routine. Hopefully none of these common exercise myths, mistakes and misconceptions have prevented you from working out.

1. Common Mistake: 

 Failure to set goals. Do you exercise without a clear goal in mind? Having a clear goal set is a critical step in exercise and weight loss success. Tracking your progress in a journal will help ensure you see your improvements, will help motivate you and help you meet your ultimate goal.

2. Common Misconception:

  No Pain, No Gain. Pain is your bodys way of letting you know something is wrong. Do not ignore this. When you go beyond exercise and testing yourself, you will encounter physical discomfort and need to overcome it. An example of this would be training for a marathon. It is important that you have the base training before getting into the advance training. The base training develops the body and gets it ready for extensive training. You need to learn to read your body. Is the heavy breathing because you are pushing your body or could it be the beginning of a heart attack. Exercise is important. Do it correctly and you can do it for the rest of your life.

It is normal for you to hurt after you exercise, but it must be done gradually with a good amount of rest periods to allow proper healing. There are two common problems here with beginning exercisers. You can cause long lasting damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments if you work out while you are in pain, without allowing enough rest time to heal. You might find yourself in constant and long lasting pain if you do this which means that you will no longer be able to exercise.

If you wake up the next morning after you exercised and can barely drag your aching body out of bed because everything hurts, you are going to be less motivated to exercise at all. Constant pain is a sure way to kill your exercise program.

3. Common Mistake:

  Sacrificing Quality for Quantity. When you are ready to increase the number of reps of a particular exercise, and strengthen the corresponding muscles, instead of forcing yourself to do a little more each time try decreasing the number of reps in a set but increase the number of sets. Also, back off to half your usual number of reps but add a couple of more sets. You will feel less tired and will be able to gain strength in your fast-twitch muscles.

4. Common Myth:

  Weight Training Makes Women Bulky. Weight training for a woman will strengthen and tone muscle, burn fat and increase metabolism, not build mass. Women do not produce enough of testosterone to build muscle mass the way that men do.

5. Common Mistake:

  Over-Emphasizing Strengths. You should start focusing on your points rather then what you are good at. This will help you balance things. For example, if your lower body is stronger than you upper body, then try to work only on this area one day a week.

Being smart about how you exercise will take you a long way. It is important to have a healthy body so get out there and start exercising today.

5 Helpful Things to Do to Start Your Personal Fitness

 

5 Helpful Things to Do to Start Your Personal Fitness Program

The most common challenge that people I talk to face is how to incorporate fitness into their lives. They know they have to do something to get in shape but they really dont know how. It can be discouraging because of the abundance of information out there. So much that you may not know where to begin.

Our society has so many food choices that it is easy to pack on the extra pounds. Also our day to day jobs are less physical as they where 100 years ago so we have more sedentary life styles. We know there are benefits involved when we exercise and cleaning up or diet. However, most of us know dont know how or where to start.

So where do we begin? Or is the question: How do we begin?

The very first thing you need do is go to your doctor and get the approval to start exercising. Your doctor may also provide some helpful tips as well.

After you get the OK from your doctor, try these 5 things to help you get started:

Make the Choice to Start Exercising and Eating Right

Making the decision to do something provides a form of commitment you made to your self. Deciding that you need to change behavior creates new possibilities. When you say to your self I need to get in shape, it means something. You should be answering these questions in your mind: When can I work out? What exercises do I need to do? What foods should I be eating? Make your self think about the commitment you just made. Only then you can let go of the past and take steps to move forward.

Write Down What You Do

You need a reference that is realistic towards your weekly activity. Write down everything you do during the week. This should include work hours, commuting hours, nights spent with your spouse, your childs activities and anything else you can think of that you do. You should also include what you do on weekends. You should make a list for each day of the week. Heres why..

Some people set lofty goals like working out for 2 hours a day. This can be due to an old saying, More is Better. However, this is not the case. Knowing your schedule will help you set realistic goals and help you find a few hours a week to start exercising. Youll have a visual perspective on what you can and cant do with your routine.

Research and Get Information

Most people do not have enough information before they start a work out program. So how do we get the information we need? The good news is we live in the information age. Take advantage of your favorite search engine and learn a little bit about fitness and nutrition. However, do not go overboard and lose focus. Find a source of information you like and take notes. Find the simplest and easiest workouts and nutrition tips. Dont over load yourself with information.

If you have the money, hire a personal trainer for a few sessions to help you get started. Hiring a personal trainer is a great way to get started because you have made a commitment to meet someone to workout. Your goal is to have the trainer show you the basics on exercise and eating healthier. It may also be safer to learn how to perform the exercises (especially if you have not exercised for a while).

Create a Simple Plan and Set Realistic Goals

Keep it Simple! Following a simple plan while on a hectic schedule is much easier than following an elaborate plan. You should have a plan of which days you want to work out and one goal to change your eating habits for the next few weeks. For example, I will work out for a half an hour for 3 days this week. I will eat a little less each meal. Simple is success.

Execute Your Plan

Now that you have a plan, all you need to do is follow it. This is another big step. You should look at your plan every day upon waking. You need be mentally prepared for the great day ahead of you. Having your daily schedule in hand will help you achieve your goals for the day. When you complete your workout for the day, highlight it or cross it off your list. It will show you that you accomplished something for yourself. No matter what you must execute. This will be the hardest (and most rewarding) step.

I hope these things help you get started on a new life of physical fitness. Life is filled with making decisions, knowing your commitments, getting information, planning and execution. Try these approaches for yourself and you will see that having your own workout and nutrition program is not as far fetched or complicated as you think.

Wrestling Workout Equipment

 

If you are training for professional or amateur wrestling it is very important to have the right equipment that helps you to gain wrestling strength.

The following can be helpful for getting started:

Brief Workouts

The workouts should never exceed 35 minutes in duration, as If they do, you arent working hard enough to complete your workout. The ability to recuperate from the workouts, and therefore develop more strength, is increased when you complete your workout within the stipulated time. Long and strenuous workouts will eventually cut into your bodys ability to recuperate, and lead to over-training.

Using Machines and Free Weights

There is a common misconception amongst athletes and coaches that you must use free weights when strength training. Free weights are great! So are machines! Your muscles dont know the difference. The intensity is the most important thing when trying to improve your strength for wrestling. The tool that you use to get there is not. I like certain exercises for certain muscles. It also depends on injuries that a wrestler might already have. You can work around and injury and still give the body a thorough strength workout. If you have access to Hammer Strength machines, I highly recommend that you include them in your wrestling strength workout.

Using thick bar

The thick bar is usually a hollow metal tube that you put free weights on the end of. A thick bar forces you to hold on tightly when performing exercises. It develops fantastic forearm and hand strength. It should be part of every serious strength-training program for wrestlers. You can do curls, reverse curls, rows, and presses with it.

The Trap Bar

The trap bar another piece of equipment that helps to gain wrestling strength. The trap bar is a hexagonally shaped bar that allows you to perform dead lifts with maximal stimulation of almost every muscle vital to improved wrestling performance. An exercise that will make your entire body stronger.

Basic Trampoline Tricks

 

If you own a trampoline, you already know that it is a great way to get out of the house, and into the fresh air. Did you also know that it’s benefiting your health? Jumping up and down on a trampoline is great for strengthening the cardio-vascular system and it is also an excellent workout for almost every muscle and organ of the body. Exercising on a trampoline can also be very helpful for adults and children because it helps to improve reflexes, flexibility, balance and coordination.

One way to enhance not only the fun aspect of the trampoline, but also increase the health benefits, is by putting a little extra effort into your jumping by doing some tricks! There’s lot of tricks that can done on the trampoline, from the beginner level to the advanced. Here’s a few of them beginning with some basics including additional tips to ensure safety and avoid injury.

‘Landing on the Back’ is one of the first, basic trampoline tricks any bouncer should learn and its very simple. Stand motionless on the trampoline with your arms at your sides or even with your hands in your front pockets. Fall backwards onto the trampoline, keeping your body straight and your head up. As your back meets the trampoline, let your head meet it naturally too, don’t jerk or twist it. You will bounce back up and then you can do it again, over and over until you achieve a good rebounding height. The more you practice this trick, the higher you will bounce back and forth!

Here’s an intermediate trampoline trick you can do once you’ve master the basic Back Landing trick. Begin the same way, standing straight and motionless, with arms at your sides or hands in your pockets. Fall straight back again, but when you bounce back up, land on your knees instead! The motion will keep sending you back and forth so you can repeat the trick as many times as you want.

Some advanced trampoline tricks include somersaults and flips. Either of these can be done backwards or forwards, but you should be very comfortable and confident with your bouncing abilities before attempting either of them. Once you’ve got the flip down, you spice it up by adding a spin to it.

Before attempting any trick, ensure everyone’s safety, including your own. Remember to look around and see how much room you have. You will definitely want to avoid a collision with any other jumpers that are on the trampoline with you. To further prevent any mishaps, warm up first by doing some simple bounces and once you get going, remember to keep your head and neck in a natural position. This way you don’t hurt yourself.

Have fun, be safe and keep on bouncing!

Benefit From Using Home Gym Equipment

 

 

Nearly everyone today has been educated on the benefits of getting regular exercise. Yet still there are an average of sixty percent of American adults not getting enough exercise, while twenty-five percent of the population isnt active at all. Whether this comes in the form of housecleaning for an hour or strength training at the gym–exercise keeps your muscles strong, your heart strong, and your body in shape. You may find that having home gym equipment to exercise on is a great way of staying active so that you can stay healthy.

Doctors have found that the more active you are the healthier you are in many studies. There is a direct correlation between physical activity on that home gym equipment and a lowered risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, colon cancer, and muscle, bone and joint problems. Also if this wasnt all ready enough to have you looking up home gym equipment reviews on the internet, exercise can literally make you feel better mentally and emotionally.

Plus you dont have to exercise for hours a day every day of the week to receive these benefits. Most doctors suggest that you exercise three to five times a week for about a half an hour each time to remain happy and healthy. On a piece of your home gym equipment thats only one and a half to two and a half hours of exercise each week. More than likely youll get addicted to the exercise once you get into a routine and end up exercising more than that on a weekly basis.

Anyone can benefit from the exercise that they get from using home gym equipment. As mentioned previously there are many home gym equipment reviews available online for you to look at in order to get an understanding of the wide variety and availability of home gym equipment on the market.

7 Reasons Why Smoking is Even More Hazardous for Diabetics

 

 

7 Reasons Why Smoking is Even More Hazardous for Diabetics

Here are 7 reasons why mixing diabetes with smoking is a very bad idea:

1) You are more likely to get nerve damage (neuropathy). This is because smoking affects your blood circulation and that in turn means your nerve endings are not getting the nutrients they need. If this happens to the nerves in your feet it could lead to sores and infections and, if not taken care of properly, even amputation.

2) There is an increased risk double in fact -of you getting limited mobility in your joints. It’s no fun trying to bend, climb stairs or lift something when you have a painful joint.

3) Because of smoking you could develop kidney disease.

4) When you smoke your blood pressure increases. Increased blood pressure creates a real risk of heart disease.

5) Research has shown that diabetics who smoke increase, 3-fold, the risk of dying of heart (cardiovascular) disease.

6) By smoking you increase your blood-sugar levels. This makes it more difficult to control your diabetes because your glucose levels could be fluctuating quite dramatically. This, in turn, leads to other problems.

7) And it also increases your cholesterol levels, which increases the risk of a heart attack.

In fact smoking – and passive smoking – have a seriously detrimental effect on the ABC’s of diabetes management:

A1C – the measurement of your blood glucose over a 3-month period
B – your blood pressure, which should be below 130/80
C – your cholesterol levels. Cholesterol levels include LDL, HDL and triglycerides. Your LDL should be below 100. HDL levels should be above 40 (for men) and above 50 (for women). Tryglycerides should be below 150.

And, of course, on top of all that there’s the proven risk of cancer!

5 Ways to Manage your Diet for Diabetes

 

Since my diagnosis with diabetes at the age of eleven, my own diet has changed dramatically. I maintain my current healthy weight with a great diet/eating plan. If you do plan on losing more than about a stone in weight then I would visit your doctor for more tips on how to do this without risk.

I’ve had diabetes for seven years now, but to tell you that how I maintain weight is perfect would be totally wrong of me. However, I can advise you to follow my steps because I know what works and what doesn’t. Before I really begin I must also say that I have been brought up by great parents who taught me to eat everything, and so I do! If there is something that you don’t like, there are loads of other diabetic recipes and ideas that you will eat and appreciate.

I am a university student and I like to buy fresh and organic produce from where I live. I believe that this is important because it can be the most good for your body and contain more nutrients and vitamins than most supermarket produce. I like to source food from my fortnightly farmers market in town, which sells amazing meat and dairy produce and fresh in season fruit and vegetables. This is another important thing to remember, that eating fruit and vegetables in their season means that they will taste better as well as doing you good. I have a lot of influence from Western European cuisine (mainly France and Italy) as you will tell, but I do not profess to be a chef and everything is easy to make and very convenient.

I have read countless diet books and diabetic recipe/diet books, and I came to a conclusion that I think really works. I fused all the good things from the diets (but not from every diet) and sort of put together my own one. I call this my Juvenile Diabetes Healthy Diet!

The “rules” that I would lay down are as follows:

1. Cut back on snacks and then change the type of snacks you eat.
Certainly my biggest downfall although it wasn’t really apparent to me. When I first started at University, I had little or no routine which meant that filling my day was difficult and popping into the kitchen for a snack, no matter how healthy it felt, was a regular occurence. This is one of the hardest things to do for some people, but establishing a great routine is essential to great diabetes care. The types of snacks to be eating are unsalted nuts, dried unsweetened fruit, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables (I love fresh red pepper and cucumber), dark chocolate (richer and nicer and you only want 2 squares usually).

2. Cut back on white flour and embrace wholemeal carbs.
This is the most essential part of your diet, and the thing that can show the biggest increase in loss of weight. Some diets in fact jsut focus on this point, and are very successful. Wholemeal (especially stoneground wholemeal) is so good for you and has so much more flavour in it that switching is much easier than you think. Most people are really surprised at the ranges you can get in you supermarket, again remember that the bread that is best for you is the one that is freshest with least perservatives or added ingredients. Also, brown or basmati rice is great with a lovely nutty texture. Wholemeal pasta is great and for your potatoes I would totally recommend the smaller new potatoes.

3. Stop drinking cocktails, start drinking wine.
Cocktails are full of sugar, colourants and preservatives. As a student I have had loads of practice at going out and not drinking cocktails, so my drink of choice is Malibu and Diet Coke if I feel I have to drink something and I make it last all night. I can then top up with Diet Coke (which has almost no sugar in it) and it looks as though I am drinking Malibu, who is to know. If you are out at a restaurant, red wine is much better than anything else you can order, (except water of course!) and it has been proven that the anti-oxidants in red wine are great for keeping a healthy heart. The recommended amount is one glass a day with your evening meal.

4. Start cooking more fruit and vegetables.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are a great way to get all the vitamins and minerals you need. And there are so many different ways in which to cook vegetables, but I find that raw is the best followed closely by steamed. Both of these ways preserve all their natural goodness as well. I will follow this post with another diabetes recipes post.

5. Drink more water.
I know you have heard people say this many times before, but the benefits of drinking more water are endless. A few tips on how to get more water into your day are firstly to put bottles of water at all the places you go in the house or work. So keep one in your desk, on your desk, a glass in the kitchen, the bedroom, the sitting room, etc. Try and drink all these glasses up and you will be well on your way to 8 glasses a day. The trick is to add a glass every few days or so, if you try to drink all that water in one go you won’t be so inclined to drink 8 glasses again, trust me! Have a go, it’s amazing how great you will feel.

7 Steps on How to Prevent Diabetes

 

Diabetes is more prevalent than ever and 95% of cases diagnosed are type 2 diabetes.

Although for some the development of diabetes is inevitable, perhaps due to heriditery and other factors, for the vast majority it can be prevented by taking these 7 simple steps…

Before diabetes type 2 becomes fully developed you go through a stage known as pre-diabetes. This is where you start to show some of the symptoms, which if ignored, can lead to full blown diabetes.

Make these 7 action points part of your daily routine and you could stop this disease happening to you:

1) If you are overweight you risk developing diabetes. Reduce the amount of food on your plate so you gradually eat less and start to lose weight. Drink a glass of plain water or a sugar-free drink before your meal to take the edge of any hunger pains.

2) Reduce the amount of fat you are eating; grill or bake foods instead of frying; use low-fat spreads and reduced fat meals.

3) Check the Glycemic Index of the food you are eating – knowing what each food contains helps maintain your blood-sugars, which in turn can prevent the full onset of diabetes.

4) Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. If you keep a bottle of water with you and sip frequently you’ll be surprised how much you do drink throughout the day.

5) If you are feeling peckish choose a healthy snack rather than a chocolate bar.

6) Use skimmed rather than full-fat milk in hot drinks.

7) Exercise is good for health. But if you are not use to exercise then start in moderation. 15 minutes gentle walking each day will ease you into a regular exercising pattern.

All of these action points are also the ones that diabetics are advised to take – if you take them now you might possibly prevent irreparable damage to your health.

How To Use Make Up As A Fashion Accessory

 

Makeup can be one more accessory to your personal image and thats why we are going to explain to you step by step the most flattering and easy trends so that this season you will be beautiful.

MAKEUP

There are various flattering trends this season. On the one hand, there is the natural look with earthy and gold tones, and neutral tones for the eyes and transparent but shinny lips. On the other hand, there is the sexier look with darker tones for the eyes from navy blue to purple, and (dont forget black), and dark sexy lips.

ADVICE: Choose a look that works for you and one that you feel most comfortable with and follow the advice that we give you below.

FOUNDATION

Give a touch of something pearlescent to your foundation and youll achieve a modern and flattering look.

ADVICE: Apply your foundation to the entire face. Once it has been absorbed in to the skin, wait a few minutes for it to absorb, apply a small amount of illuminating powder in the T zone, forehead, cheekbones and chin. Blend it well with a brush for a pearly but natural effect. The result, light satiny skin.

COVER UP

Brighten your look by using a light cover up which is lighter than your skin tone over your foundation.

ADVICE: Blend it well around your eyes with your finger tip to take away any excess. And thats it, a great look without bags and full of life.

EYES

For a natural look, use browns and neutral tones.

ADVICE: Apply a golden tone on the upper eyelid to achieve the look and give it a touch of light. If you want your eyes to have a stronger look, use a dark brown pencil on the inner eye.

For a sexy look, use darker tones, the ones you like the most, from navy blue to bottle green. Or if you like, use grays or blacks.

ADVICE: Dont forget to put the darker color on your eyelid putting a blended line next to the eye lashes and put makeup on the outer eye with a black pencil. Lighten the eyelid just under the eyebrow with a pearly or shinny white for a sexy arousing look.

ESSENTIAL: Everyone notices mascara so curl your eyelashes beforehand and use two cotes to give them volume.

CHEEKBONES

Give your cheekbones a healthy look with soft rosy natural colors.
ADVICE: Blend blush well with a clean brush and loose powder on your cheekbones.

LIPS

If you want a natural look, or you have put too much lipstick on, apply lip gloss for a juicy natural look.

ADVICE: Choose a lip gloss that also shines and protects your lips.

On the other hand, if you want to forget the natural look, try a passion red or a bright fushia. The result, sexy provocative, but natural lips.

ADVICE: Use a well-sharpened lip pencil that is very similar to your lipstick to outline your lips. Do this before applying lipstick so that the color will last longer and it will be easier to use darker tones.

THE FINAL TOUCH

Wash your hair with a rinse similar to the natural color of your hair to make it brighter but without changing the color.

ADVICE: Ask you hairdresser. There are rinses that naturally moisturize and give shine to the hair.

Understanding Hair Growth Cycles and Hair Loss

 

 

We all lose a certain amount of hair each day – anywhere from 50 to 100 to 125 hairs. True hair loss occurs when these hairs we lose don’t grow back, or when the amount of hair we lose each day exceeds this normal range.

Hair loss can occur as a result of medications, such as chemotherapy treatments or blood thinners, which can damage the telogen hairs, or stop the natural cell division that then produces weakened hair that is susceptible to breaking. High doses of vitamin A can also lead to hair loss as well. The most common type of hair loss, however, is where more and more hair follicles enter what is called the resting phase (telogen phase) in the hair growth cycle.

Overall, hair grows continuously from the scalp, but it moves away from the scalp in 3 phases. Hair is not all uniformly in one phase. Different parts of the scalp will be in different phases, so at any one time you should have hair follicles in all 3 stages. Generally, most (90%) of the hair will be in the anagen phase, 10 to 14% of the hair will be in the telogen phase, and only 1 to 2% of hair in the catogen phase.

The first phase is the Anagen phase, which is the growth phase. This can last anywhere between 2 and 8 years. A shorter anagen phase will limit how long your hair can grow. Hair cells at the root divide rapidly, which lengthen the hair shaft.

In the next phase, the catagen phase, the outer root of the hair follicle shrinks and attaches to the root of the hair. Hair growth stops here. This phase lasts 1 to 2 weeks.

The telogen phase is the resting phase. This lasts from 5 to 6 weeks in normal hair. Hair doesn’t grow in this phase, but it stays firmly rooted in the scalp as long as the follicle stays in a resting phase below it. New growth begins at the end of the resting phase, and this is when natural hair shedding will happen, as the new growth pushes the old hair out.

In male pattern baldness, more hairs enter the telogen phase. This effects of this are an increase in hair shedding. Hair gradually becomes thinner and shorter, and in the end, the hair follicles shut down.

Vitamins For Female Hair Loss Prevention

 

In today’s image conscious society, physical appearance is more important than ever to a woman’s self-esteem. Imagine the heartache caused when a woman notices her hair thinning? It is estimated that over 25 million women experience thinning hair in the United States. Many are genetically predisposed to the condition. Most wonder if there are any natural remedies to help or prevent their female hair loss.

Several vitamins have been found to be very effective in supporting female hair health. Of course, many factors may contribute to female hair loss but proper nutrition can help prevent further thinning and more loss.

Vitamin A has been found to support the healthy development of tissues and cells in the body and also supports healthy hair. This important vitamin promotes healthy hair follicles by keeping the root of the hair lubricated. Vitamin A can be found in green vegetables, particularly the leafy ones, red, orange and yellow vegetables, liver and eggs. Many good multivitamins contain the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, so don’t take additional supplements without a physicians supervision. Overdoses of vitamin A can be dangerous.

A healthy scalp is also essential to healthy hair. Vitamin E supports a healthy scalp by helping to increase the oxygen supplied through the blood. Americans rarely suffer from a vitamin E deficiency, but increasing ones intake of green leafy vegetables, fortified grains and cereals and nuts can help ensure that this important nutrient is adequate. Vitamin E supplements are also available for this matter.

The B vitamins are also important for hair health. Regulating the amount of iron in the blood, these vitamins also help oxygen flow through the lungs to the tissues. Of course, a B vitamin deficiency would damage the hair and scalp by limiting the amount of oxygen that these tissues receive. B vitamins are available as supplements and in several foods, including proteins and soybeans, cereals, nuts and wheat germ.

If a proper nutrition that involves essential vitamins and minerals helps in hair loss prevention and a good healthy scalp, then paying extra attention to the food and supplements that you eat is well worth the time and effort!

What Is Normal About Hair Loss?

 

It is important to note that shedding of hairs is a natural process with anything from 100 to 300 hairs randomly shed each day. In this article we’ll look at two distinct aspects of normal hair loss. Firstly, we’ll examine what is actually involved in the hair growth cycle. Secondly, we’ll assess the natural progression of hair loss over time. Hair is composed of long, twisted keratin fibers that are protected by a coating of keratinized cells. Just below the surface of the skin lies a cluster of active cells known as the dermal papilla and it is from here that the hair grows into its follicle. This growing fiber eventually hardens and grows out from the scalp. At this stage the hair fiber is dead with only the root tip containing living cells. In a little more detail, the hair growth cycle, consists of three distinct stages:

 1. Anagen stage – a phase of growth that can last between two and seven years. On average, each hair grows about six inches (15cm) per year.

 2. Catagen stage – a phase of transition that lasts roughly two to four weeks. At this time the hair shaft detaches from the dermal papilla and moves up within a shrinking follicle. 

 3. Telogen stage – a resting period that lasts about three months allowing the hair to detach itself from the follicle before falling out. After this, the cycle repeats itself unless other factors intervene to prevent repetition of the cycle. 

Clearly time has a role to play in the development of hair loss for both men and women. Humans are born with varying amounts of soft and fine body hair. Through time some of this hair becomes stronger and develops further characteristics such as colour and texture. Up to the onset of puberty the hairline is characterized by a low spread across the forehead. For men, this continues only for a few more years. As men progress through their twenties the hairline takes on a more mature look typified by recessions to the frontal temporal regions and accompanied by slight thinning elsewhere. This concave appearance doesn’t necessarily equate to premature balding as it is all a question of degree. The Norwood Scale is an extremely useful tool in developing a hair growth strategy as it allows you to establish your own degree of hair loss in a way that is understood by physicians and other hair loss experts. More importantly, it can help to set your mind at rest and allow you to differentiate between normal hair loss that does not require remedial action and more extreme loss that calls for immediate action.

Tips To Beating Depression

 

Everyone has days when they are down, worn out and just not feeling all that happy. That’s OK, you need to have days like this, otherwise how would you know when you are happy. You need to have something to contrast your happiness with. What is black without white? Even though you know that sadness is a part of life, let’s try to make it a small part of life. With that said, here are a few tips to help you feel better when you are feeling down in the dumps. They are easy to do, easy to practice every day and they work! 

1. Stand up straight, sit up straight. When your body is in alignment your energy can flow and when your energy is flowing freely, you can flow.

 2. Smile! Yes, just smile. Easy to do and effective. 

3. Repeat positive affirmations. Things like “I feel good”, “Positive energy flows through my body”, “I see the good in all”.

 4. Listen to some music that you like. It doesn’t have to be anything specific, just something you enjoy. Certain types of music work better than others, but experiment and see what works for you. Studies have shown that Classical music and new age music work best. 

5. Take some time out for yourself, relax and read a book, do something for yourself. 

6. Meditate. Meditation is an excellent habit to develop. It will serve you in all that you do. If you are one who has a hard time sitting still, then try some special meditation CDs that coax your brain into the meditative state. 

Just search for “Meditation music” on Google or Yahoo and explore. Our outside work is simply a reflection of our inside world. Remember there is no reality just your perception of it. Use this truth to your advantage. Whenever you are sad, realize that it is all in your mind and you do have the power to change your perception. These tips will lift you up when you are down, but don’t just use them when you are sad. Try and practice them everyday, make them a habit. You will be surprised at how these simple exercises will keep the rainy days away. On a final note, if you are in a deep depression that you can’t seem to shake, please go see a doctor. This is your life and don’t take any chances.

Depression: Recommendations For Sexual Side Effects By Antidepressants

Sexual side effects caused by antidepressants are completely recognized, but this represents a practical problem of managing to physicians. Erectile dysfunction, diminished libido and delayed/attenuated or absent orgasm (dysorgasmia or anorgasmia) are the most common sexual side effects reported because of antidepressant treatment. However, sexual side effects caused by antidepressants are also a very challenge to clinicians, since they have to distinguish between sexual dysfunction (SD) associated with depression, treatment-emergent SD and pre-existing SD exacerbated by treatment. Making the difference between these situations is quite important, since treatment strategies are not the same for the above mentioned SDs. Sexual dysfunction associated with depression may be treated raising the antidepressant dose, however, this would be particularly inappropriate for a treatment-emergent SD, in which case the appropriate thing is to lower the dose. For managing appropriately antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction, experts recommend that clinicians may attempt to alleviate the sexual side effects of a drug though a reduction of the dose and/or a change to an alternative therapy that may be less likely to cause sexual side effects. These strategies are more likely to be used in patients who are not responding fully to treatment and also risk sacrificing the therapeutic benefit of treatment. Nonpharmacologic interventions are also recommended by experts. Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral techniques employed by sex therapists are the most common, although there are no studies evaluating their success in patients taking antidepressants. There exist a number of medications quite useful in the treatment of sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressants. Under experts’ opinion, the most common medications for antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction fall into three categories: Dopaminergic agents, such as amantadine and pramipexole. a2-adrenergic receptor antagonists such as yohimbine. Serotonin 5-HT2 or 5-HT3 receptor antagonists, including granisetron, nefazodone and cyproheptadine.