Walking On Treadmills For Weight Loss

Walking on a treadmill is by far one of the easiest ways to get in shape. Treadmills are the choice of many beginning exercisers because the machines are so accommodating. The same machine that you use in the beginning when you are just walking can be the same machine that you are running on months down the road. Read more

The Truth About Fitness Training

It is a well known fact that before any type of fitness training it is necessary to carry out some simple warm up moves so there is less chance of injury. But to help further with your workout there are some other things you may wish to do to make it more enjoyable. Read more

Obesity: Statistics Speak for Themselves

There is a tremendous discussion going on in the media across the globe about losing weight. Each story the media brings seems to bear conflicting information and it’s small wonder that people are confused about what’s healthy, what’s junk food and what’s not. Having said that, there are growing concerns worldwide about obesity. The statistics speak for themselves.

Approximately 280,000 adult deaths in the United States alone are attributed to obesity annually, compared to 35,000 deaths due to guns, and 25,000 due to car accidents, in other words it looks like the foods we eat by our own selection or choosing, kill far more of us than guns and automobiles combined.

Overweight individuals have an increased risk of developing one or more of the following conditions:

• heart disease and stroke
• hypertension
• non-insulin dependent or type 2 diabetes
• osteo-arthritis
• sleep apnea and other breathing problems

The 1996 Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health shows that more than 60 percent of adults are not participating in the recommended 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity most days of the week. The report stresses that physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve health benefits. As recently as 1990, 10 percent or fewer adult residents (in certain States) were obese now report levels doubling this. In the latest edition, three States estimate that a third of all adults are obese.

Many believe this problem is tied to increased consumption of snacks, soft drinks, and fast foods, increased sedentary activities - such as watching TV and playing video games - and decreased opportunities for exercise and physical activity.[32]

Renewed emphasis on academic achievement in the educational system has reduced the time and space available for active play as well as for structured physical education. Long workdays and single parent households limit time for physical activity.[33]

The state action plan addresses six key interventions: increase consumption of fruit and vegetables, increase physical activity, increase breastfeeding, other dietary concerns, decrease TV/computer screen time and parental involvement.[34]

And while most of the major preventable causes of death showed declines or little change since 1990, deaths due to poor diet and physical inactivity increased 33 percent.

Diabetes is another of those unfortunate circumstances which has brought about drastic changes for 150 million people around the world. What is even worse, the number of sufferers is expected to grow each year. Diabetes is another disease of the affluent and reducing obesity can control the risk.

Obesity doesn’t happen overnight, it happens over time, when the energy we take in by eating is out of balance with the energy we burn doing physical activity. There are things we can do to prevent overweight and obesity, but perhaps these people are in need of not only regular exercise. A situation, a trauma, buried so deep - can cause any amount of heaven knows what kind of psychological problem inside us, that drives us on the one hand to withdraw and comfort ourselves and on the other to destroy ourselves in this way.

30 minutes most days of the week is good, and will help to prevent and treat obesity. Keep it fun and safe. Physical activity does not need to be strenuous - it just has to be for us to enjoy a long and quality filled life.

[32] http://assembly.state.ny.us/member_files/051/20030716/
[33] http://www.dhs.ca.gov/cdic/copi/html/problem.htm
[34] http://chfs.ky.gov/dph/ach/ns/cdc+obesity+grant.htm

Schedule Exercise Into Your Daily Routine

Health and fitness go hand-in-hand, although you can be eating healthy food but still be unfit if you’re not exercising frequently, the question is are you willing to play games with your health?  Exercising to improve mobility and balance is important, but can be difficult to fit into a busy schedule, especially when you have classes, homework, extra curricular activities, children and/or a job on top of everything else. Try to find ways to schedule regularly exercise into your daily routine.

Walking with your dog is an excellent way to keep both you and your pet fit. Be aware that dogs, like people, need time to get into shape too.

With summer coming up, exercising in the heat can be risky if you aren’t careful. Be smart when it’s hot and take extra care to make sure that you are prepared for the heat. Some of the threats that you face when exercising in the summer heat include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Try exercising in the morning, one of the benefits of this is that you will actually have more energy for the rest of the day, but during the summer, early morning hours are cooler so you avoid extreme heat.

Stretching to increase flexibility is good, focus on the large muscle groups, and especially muscle groups that affect your posture and mobility. Stretches are best performed after your muscles are warmed up and should be done gently and slowly, without bouncing. Stretching exercises will help prevent injury as it strengthens the muscles and ligaments surrounding joints, which in turn will protect and reduce stress on the joint.

Weight training, or strength training, builds strength and muscles and can lead to an increase in muscle mass, losing weight if necessary at the same time. Strength training has continuous energy burning effects that keep going for several hours after training, though they may not offer the same cardiovascular benefits as aerobic exercises do.

Aerobic dance is also an excellent way to both lose weight and keep in shape. There are varied forms of aerobics including low-impact, swimming and other water aerobics that are also popular. Aerobic exercises focus on strengthening of major organs such as the heart, lungs, and circulatory system. If you want to improve your physique, focus on aerobic exercises. As far as the exercises are concerned, you may try swimming, jogging, aerobic dancing, cycling, skiing, to keep yourself fit. Regular exercising can assist you in gaining more quality in your life.

Recommended reading on information about exercising regularly:

Health and Fitness - for people who live in the real world
How to lose weight and get in shape
Strength Training Exercises
Weight Loss Workout

Easy Workouts Without Equipment

During the last few days, we’ve come across many sites with valuable exercising information, that we can read and/or watch straight away, that don’t require any special equipment, a trip to the gym or anything fancy at all and they’re all realistic, which is an important point.

“Raphael Calzadilla, BA, ACE, RTS1, eDiets Chief Fitness Pro, designed this routine so that one exercise stimulates multiple muscle groups. This way, you’ll get the best bang for your buck in the least amount of time. Perform each exercise in succession. After completing one movement, immediately continue to the next one. After you’ve completed all the movements, perform them one more time. Attempt 20-25 repetitions of each movement. Don’t worry if you can’t perform all the reps — it will come. If you’re a beginner, take your time and go at your own pace.”

To improve your fitness level you don’t need a gym membership necessarily. There are simple but effective workouts that can get your muscles firm and tight, in a realistic way without all the equipment and all you need is to do the exercise frequently each week - really simle. Raphael Calzadilla has designed many programs that you can find here at No Gym Required. Look around the site, there is plenty of sound fitness information for you to enjoy. So - enjoy - don’t forget to watch the video too.

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Tips for Treating Post Exercise Muscle Soreness

You probably know the feeling. After going that little bit extra with your work out, your muscles are really sore, stiff and painful a few hours after. While this soreness does seem to confirm to you that you’ve worked hard with your exercises, this direct and very intensive muscle soreness is usually the type of pain and discomfort that many exercisers experience, after beginning with a progressive resistance training and is often called muscle soreness delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)

Naturally there are ways to speed up or avoid completely this type of muscle soreness, but let’s look at at why muscles get sore in the first place.

Why do muscles get sore?

The muscle soreness experienced after a workout - often several hours after, is generally caused by small ruptures or tears in the muscle. Generally muscle soreness occurs when the exerciser starts a new exercise that their body isn’t accustomed to. Swelling can occur as well as a result of these minor muscle ruptures, which contributes to the soreness, pain and stiff limbs.

Is muscle soreness a good sign?

According to popular opinion many exercisers think that having sore muscles means that you are working out in the right way. This may be true to a certain

Credit: Shayan (USA)

extent, but it isn’t absolutely essential that your muscles get sore after each workout.

So why isn’t muscle soreness OK?

The main reason that muscle soreness isn’t good, is that essentially you wont be able to workout as effectively for the next few days. With a sore body - you need a little rest.

Another reason muscle soreness is a bad sign is because it can mean that your training technique is poor both before, during and after the exercise session. For example, people who don’t warm up properly have longer muscle soreness than people who do.

If your muscles are sore from a weight lifting or exercise session then there are a few simple things that you can do to shorten the amount of time they stay painful. Although there isn’t a simple way to treat delayed onset muscle soreness, gentle stretching is one of the recommended ways to reduce exercise related muscle soreness, however, recent studies found that stretching is not effective in avoiding muscle soreness.

In essence there isn’t any one single treatment that is absolutely proven as being effective ‘here and now‘, and while some people have found the following helpful, it’s best for you to try a few things to see what works for you and the really best advice for treating muscle soreness - is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Tips for treating post exercise muscle soreness:

1. If you feel better waiting until the pain subsides, the soreness will stop with a few days - usually 3 to 7 days with no special treatment. Let the muscle soreness subside thoroughly before performing any vigorous exercise.

 

2. Take a soak in a warm bath. Dissolve a cup of Epsom salts or bath salts and unashamedly soak until your skin wrinkles. Top up with warm water if necessary. For some this helps a great deal.

 

3. Alternatively, sit in a bath filled with ice water for 5 minutes - or take a very cold shower. This can be really tough to start, but you’ll feel great the next day and no sore muscles at all.

 

4. Perform some easy low-impact aerobic exercise to increase blood flow. This has been known to help get rid of muscle soreness.

 

5. Even though research hasn’t found gentle stretching reduces muscle soreness, some people find that it does help.

 

6. Gentle massage to the affected muscles can alleviate muscle soreness and reducing swelling.

 

7. Try using an anti-inflammatory medication - something like aspirin or ibuprofen, which will reduce the soreness temporarily, though this doesn’t actually have any healing effects.

 

8. Yoga has proven to help some people in reducing muscle stiffness and pain.

 

9. Warm up completely before your next exercise session. Warming up immediately before exercise is proven to help avoid muscle soreness. Unfortunately cooling down performed after exercise as no effect.

 

10. Round each workout off, even weight training with 10 to 15 minutes of light cardio. This will get the blood and lymphatic system flowing and will help eliminate waste products that have built up during your workout.

 

11. If your muscle pain persists longer than about 7 days or increases despite these measures, consult consult with your doctor.

 

As each person is unique, some may be more susceptible to sore muscles after exercising than others. Many of the above tips may work for you, but as said we are all unique, so what works for one person may not work for you and visa versa. Try to use techniques to prevent instead, to avoid this painful, temporary condition.

What others from around the Internet are saying about How to Treat Muscle Soreness:

Acute Muscle Soreness
Muscle Pain and Soreness
Yoga and Muscle Soreness
Muscle Soreness on Medicine Net
Ease muscle soreness with light exercise
Lactic Acid, The Reason For Muscle Itch And Soreness
How To Relieve Muscle Soreness

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