Healthy Fitness Zone

Archive for September, 2011

What should I do to keep myself in shape? I have no time for gym work out! “Today I will go home early to do work out”. I know these are questions and predicaments which exist in your mind from your childhood to adult hood. The best part is that most of us would not have resolved this issue. Studies indicate 30 minutes of workout is good for a normal human to remain fit. Further a minimum of 15 minutes of cardio is a must to keep you from heart ailments, diabetic disorder and a healthy sexual life. Unfortunately, most of us complain about the inability to find 15 minutes in 24 hours, how sad? Right!

Put aside your excuses and find time and I believe that the best time you can find is early morning. Your blood sugar and insulin levels are the lowest in the morning and that provides the best moment for burning the extra fat in your body. Doing cardio before your meal, enable your body to burn fat stored in your body for energy. But change your routine so that you are not struck by monotony or find a company to help you follow the routine. Some of the best proven cardio is tread mill, elliptical training and the simplest being a walk or jog for few blocks. So find you a partner today for your morning cardio for a healthy tomorrow.

My dad cleaned our first car twice every day to such an extent that at one point we had to change the wind screen of our car due to scratch marks. Anything over done could lead to disastrous results. Beginners become usually over enthusiastic and seeing beginning result make them believe that little more effort will yield better results without realizing that they are overtraining. The following scenarios can be considered as overtraining,

• Training all seven days in a week
• Cramping your session with too many exercises
• Increased number of repetitions/sets
• Weight training using heavy weight over prolonged period

Muscle fibers require adequate rest to re-grow cells. Some of the effects of overtraining are loss of strength, reduced appetite, muscle soreness, mood changes, lack of interest in training and high recovery period. Thus, one should avoid overtraining by following a well spaced out training program catering for adequate rest in a week. Bring in variety in your exercise sessions so as to avoid monotony. Repetitions of the exercise should be planned in such a fashion that it is not done till breakdown. Weekly Sessions should contain exercises that do not over stress a particular muscle. One should include sports and cardio activities to balance your weight training program. On the whole listen to your body to see if it is overstressed. Amend you session accordingly for better results.

Prepare better than to feel sorry must be the motto of every athlete. Every athlete and aspirants of good health undergo weight training as a part of the quest for fitness and well being. The first advice by a physical trainer to those individuals would be train safe and smart. Accidents do happen due to a variety of reasons ranging from complacency to over enthusiasm. Thus knowledge about different injuries would be of some help before indulging in weight training. Muscle tear is a tear of the tendon where the muscle is attached to the bone. This often happen when you get up suddenly while squatting or pushing a bar bell too fast. It causes a sudden acute persistent pain. A sprain is an injury that happens in the joints like wrist and ankle due to a torn ligament joining bones. It is usually accompanied by pain and throbbing. Some injuries which are specific to weight training are torn rotator cuff caused during bench presses and shoulder presses, sore knees, and lower back pain..

It is difficult to identify specific reason for injuries like sore wrist and knees. If you feel pain, never do weight training till you fully recover. Wrist injuries can be prevented by frequent wrist curls and reverse curls. Adequate care and precaution must be taken to protect your lower back while weight training. The best preventive measure for lower back pain is pulling your abdominals inward so as to provide a natural support to your lower back. In case of swelling, ice helps you to reduce swelling and hence at least 3 times in a day, ice your injury for 15 minutes. Elevating the swelled part and applying pressure on the swelling helps you to keep it down. A pain free exercise will make you enjoy your work out and so your day.

Hi cronies,

Ouch! Ooo! Ah! are the common jargons after a long day work People who do long driving, working extended hours in chair jobs get into problem like back pain and neck pain. Unfortunately, people spend enormous amount of time and effort in getting a cure for their problem. Had they thought a while, they would have realized that the pain could be due to wrong posture while sitting, walking or sleeping. If you are one who is suffering from such problems, then the right thing would be to get your posture assessed by a doctor. Postural problems will cause some muscles to shorten and tighten and some to stretch and weaken.

Posture describes the way your body is aligned and hence understanding it would help you to choose the right kind of massage technique to get maximum benefit out of it. Petrissage movements have stretching effect and hence they are suitable for shortened muscles, while percussion movements help to ease stretched muscles. Poor posture also needs to be corrected through exercise for correcting postures. Unfortunately most of us do not have a correct posture and good posture can be achieved only through constant practice, as poor posture is due to long term habits. Poor posture can be corrected by looking straight ahead with level eyes, relaxing into a neutral position with chin Pulled in, feeling the crown of the head as if it is pulled up towards the ceiling, keeping the neck straight, pulling the shoulders back and down, holding tummy in and tail tucked in and finally balancing one’s weight evenly through the buttocks while sitting.