Moderate Exercises to Fitness!

Have you ever felt tired and stressed out from work and by the time you get home you see your three children running towards you asking you to play basketball with them? You refused and promised them that you will after you take you rest.

Instead of disappointing your children, why not say, "yes" after all? You will be surprised by the amount of energy you will have after that 30-minute activity.

Did you know that by exercising at a moderate pace for only 30 minutes, you would feel a lot better, mentally? It has been proven that this improves the appetite and sharpens your style in problem solving. Not only that. You will also feel that it is easier to sleep at night if you do moderate exercises even for only 30 minutes every day.

What are the benefits of regular exercise? It promotes self-discipline and has a positive impact how you perceive life. Exercise helps in lifting your spirits and getting you out of any depression. For first timers, it can be done for 15 minutes for 2 to 3 days a week. You can increase the time you spend once your body gets tuned up for it.

DON'T you ever force your body! If you get hurt, then stop. You can take a break from exercising for a few days and then you can start again but you need to start from day 1.

Here are some moderate exercises you can do and enjoy:

1. Do the Walking.
Make use of your surroundings. You can walk your dog, with your partner or child. Encourage your family to do the walking exercise daily and you will find yourself burning calories while enjoying the surroundings and getting enough sunlight that is also good for your body.

2. Discover the wonders of Yoga.

Yoga is one effective exercise that energizes not only your body but also your soul. You may want to learn even the basic yoga positions that are not too complicated but proven effective. A five-minute yoga exercise can perk you up and recharge your body with the energy you lost for the whole day. You relax and at the same time you stretch!

3. Engage yourself into sports.
Play basketball, football, baseball, tennis or badminton. Many doctors have recommended sports as an effective way to stay fit and healthy. Sports can also be done in moderation. Do not take it seriously. Shooting basketball with a friend is one moderate exercise that is also considered a sport.

4. Join exercise programs at work.
If you still do not have exercises programs at work, then why not start it? You can talk to your boss about it and start with your colleagues. You do not only lose calories but it is also one good way to bond with them. This can be done 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

5. Exercise while doing household chores.
Gardening, raking leaves, lawn mowing, doing the laundry, vacuuming and car washing are effective moderate exercises at home. Make use of these chores to sweat and burn calories. Instead of using machines and gadgets to perform these chores, why not do it with your hands and lose some fats?

Making exercises as part of your daily routines will surprise you of how much calories you will lose. Doing these moderate exercises of the same amount every day can burn 150 calories up to 1,000 calories a day!

Read More

how to Advice On Buying Maternity Wear

Just because you are 8 months pregnant with a stomach out to there, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still care about your appearance. In fact, when you’re feeling hormonal and down in the dumps, a good shopping trip for stylish maternity wear may be exactly what you need.

General advice

The first instinct pregnant mothers have when shopping is to go directly for something that is large and baggy. Please avoid this as maternity clothing that is layered or has bold prints or horizontal stripes will only make you seem bigger. Everyone knows that black is slimming so if you want to appear smaller, go for maternity clothing in one solid color. Don’t compromise your style.
If you find maternity clothing too plain, try going to plus size stores or shop at your usual haunts but buy a bigger size. This will allow you to go for styles that you would normally have preferred pre-pregnancy.

Maternity wear budget

Be careful with your budget though, as you have to remember you won’t be that big for that long! If you want to save money, borrow other people’s maternity clothing. Most mothers’ keep their maternity clothing in case of future pregnancies or as a keepsake and they’ll probably be happy to let their used maternity clothing be used by you. Or, you could try yard sales or consignment shops for a good bargain.

Shoes

If you are well into your pregnancy, you don’t want to buy high heels. Flat shoes or flip flops are the best way to go. If you must have heels in your shoe, try kitten heels as they are not that high and will be comfortable to wear.

Maternity formal wear

The best kind of formal wear won’t hide your shape. Be proud of your new pregnant shape and show it off. Formal wear for expectant mothers can be found in suits or dresses. The most common colors are black or midnight blue as it is one solid color that is slimming to all shapes. The best maternity dresses are empire cut, which means it is cut right under the bust, to provide maximum room for movement of your growing belly. Maternity suits are also alternative and very flattering to those who are four to five months pregnant.

Maternity swim wear

If you are only four to six months pregnant, you can probably get away with going to plus sized stores and purchasing larger swimsuits as maternity swim wear. In this way, you will get a greater range of swim wear to choose from without having to change your style. Maternity swim wear is not readily available all year round so make sure to head straight to your favorite maternity clothing store when the sun comes out if you’re planning a tropical holiday during the winter.

Whatever your shape or size, you are bound to find maternity wear for any occasion! Don’t just stick to the boring styles you often see in maternity stores; be inventive when mixing and matching to create your own maternity wear style!

Read More

A Healthy Guide to Good Nutrition

Whether you are at your ideal weight or striving to reach your weight goal is it simply a matter of burning more calories than you take in? The answer, I suggest, is no! Overall body health improvement as well as weight gain or loss must be factored in to the equation or you could be heading for problems. Correct nutrition can help to reduce the risk of a miriad of health-related problems, the most frightening of which are surely heart disease and cancer.

 Proper nutrition, however, entails eating many different foods, monitoring your consumption of some food and beverage items, and counting calories. Good diets offer balanced nutrition that reduces cholesterol, blood pressure, and helps with weight control.

To function properly, your body must have the correct combination of nutrients:

Carbohydrates. They are the primary source of ammunition in your diet. The body uses carbohydrates to build glucose which can be used immediately or stored in your body for later. Too much glucose, however, is stored as fat. There are two types of carbohydrates - simple and complex. Sugars are simple carbohydrates. Starches and fibers are complex carbohydrates.

Proteins. Proteins help your body build and maintain muscles and other tissues. They also function in the creation of hormones. Like carbohydrates, excess protein is stored as fat.

Animal and vegetable are the two major types of proteins. Too much animal protein can cause high cholesterol, as it is high in saturated fat.

Fat. Strange as it may seem; fat is another nutrient your body requires. It comes in both saturated and unsaturated forms. Saturated fat puts you at risk of health problems. Unsaturated fat is healthy, but if it goes through any type of refinement process, it can become saturated fat.

Vitamins. These are also required nutrients. Different vitamins perform different tasks within the body. They can work with the metabolism to help with energy levels for any task you can think of that you need your body to perform. It has also been noted that certain vitamins can prevent disease.

For example, vitamins A, C, and E, also called antioxidants, can assist with the prevention of coronary artery disease by keeping build up from occurring on artery walls. Vitamin B-1 is needed for digestion and proper nervous system function. Vitamin B-2 is needed for normal cell growth. Vitamin B-3 helps to detoxify your body. Folic acid assists with production of red blood cells. Vitamin D assists with the absorption of calcium. Vitamin K helps your blood clot.

Minerals and trace elements. These are another nutrient your body requires. Both are used in many different body processes. Minerals like chlorine help make your digestive juices. Phosphorus helps build strong bones. Both can be found in the foods we consume, but with a trace element, your body just needs a tiny amount. Salt is one final nutrient your body requires. You should not consume more than 2400 milligrams per day, though, as it might raise your blood pressure.

You should follow several guidelines to create a well balanced, nutritional diet. First, try to consume two and one half cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit each day. When making your selections for each day, be sure to choose a good variety. A good rough guide is to eat as many different colors as possible, this will help you to select from all five vegetable subgroups at least four times per week.

You should eat at least three ounces of whole grain products each day. At least half of your grain intake should be whole grain based. Milk should also be part of a healthy diet. Consume at least forty-eight ounces of low fat milk or milk products on a daily basis. Your total fat intake should only be between ten and thirty percent of your calories. Most of the fats you consume should be in the form of unsaturated fats, as saturated fats can do much to damage your health. Meat, poultry, dry beans, and milk or milk products should all be lean, low-fat, or fat-free. Less than ten percent of your calories should come from saturated fats, and you should always try to avoid trans-fatty acid.

Fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be a regular part of your diet as should potassium rich foods. Alcoholic beverages should only be consumed in moderation.

Excellent nutrition is the basis of a healthy diet.

Read More

How To Build Muscles With Body Building Exercise

A well-planned exercise routine will not only help you replace fat with muscle, it will help you gain strength and flexibility.

A bodybuilding exercise plan also improves bone strength, and lowers blood pressure. Whether you are a professional bodybuilder or you just enjoy hitting the weights hard at the gym, setting a goal for your bodybuilding exercise plan will help you achieve maximum results. Remember to make your goal challenging but be realistic.

Plan a routine that will help you reach the goals you have set. You may choose to plan on paper or on computer; whichever method you chose in planning your bodybuilding exercise goal, state your goal in a positive, precise way. It is best to choose performance-oriented goals instead of outcome-oriented goals.

You can only control your own bodybuilding exercise goals, you have no control over other peoples routines, so don’t make you goal winning a competition. You might make your goal to gain a certain amount of muscles mass, or lose a specific amount of body fat. This type of goal works whether you compete or not.

Planning before you begin helps you get organized and stay focused. Putting it in writing makes it more formal, and more likely that you will stick to the plan. You should include short-term goals that help lead to your main long-term goal. Breaking down your main goal into smaller goals makes it easier to stay on your bodybuilding exercise routine.

Set a deadline for achieving your main goal. Without a deadline it can be easy to put off your bodybuilding exercise routine. Keep track of each workout you complete successfully. Plan on rewarding yourself once your long-term goal is met.

The most important step in planning is to include a proper warm-up period. Warming up reduces the change of injury and improves your performance. Warm up exercises of your bodybuilding exercise could include an aerobic activity such as treadmill walking, stepping, rowing or stationary cycling, or it could be arm circles, knee bends and shoulder circles. A third alternative is to lift light weights with a high number of reps.

The next step of your program will be tailored to the specific goal that you have set or area that you want to improve. If your goal involves your legs plan a bodybuilding exercise that works your legs, such as barbell squats or leg presses. Choose specific exercises that will increase your chest, like the barbell press, if that is your goal.

Perform each exercise carefully to avoid injury. To build mass, do fewer reps but include more sets and heavier weights, Rest at least 1 minute between sets. Another important part of your bodybuilding exercise plan is to eat properly and drink plenty of fluids.

Read More

Fitness : Anaerobic Training

Anaerobic fitness is the force component of fitness in general, which also contains at least two other essential components: aerobic fitness (the part of cardio-vascular resistance) and joint mobility. Speed and skill are native qualities and they are not very relevant for the health state – which is the main concern in mass fitness, the one meant to keep the body in good shape.

The purpose of anaerobic training programs is developing the force, the fortifying of the body or the muscular mass. There are situations when only force or muscle fortifying is intended. The typical example for these situations is given by the sports organized in categories, in which physical force (with the interdiction of going over a certain limit of weight) is tested. Growth of muscular mass determines increase of force and fortifying of the skeletal muscles. In this case, the fitness programs are very similar to body building trainings, without being followed by the spectacular, yet dangerous changes, specific to body building.

The purpose of anaerobic fitness is uniform, balanced and harmonious development of all the muscles, without ignoring their functionality. This last idea is important for making a clear difference between fitness and the tendencies, many times narcissistic, manifested by body building practitioners. The sportsman who takes up fitness wants to be able to and is able to do something with his muscles, more than showing them in contests or in different other occasions and places (disco, swimming pool, clubs, etc.).

One of the important characteristics of anaerobic fitness trainings is the use of general programs, during which all or almost all the muscles are worked out in one training session. In body building the programs are divided and trainings are focused every time on one, two or at most three groups of muscles; while in fitness one training can be focused on a certain area, but it does not exclude the other muscles, which will benefit, directly or indirectly, of at most one exercise for each group of muscles. This way, the programs are not excessively long; they take an average of one hour and fifteen minutes; thus the catabolic faze is avoided; this usually appears in very long training sessions (two hours or even more).

Another modality of reducing the time of training is doing super-series whose object is to train two antagonistic groups of muscles (chest and back or biceps and triceps, etc.). Thus, for each group of muscles must be performed a series of exercises, without a break in between; the break is taken only at the end of this double effort. The programs can also contain triple series or even giant-series (more than three exercises one after the other). The intensity of the training can be considerably increased: many muscles can be trained in a short time.

The weekly frequency of the training remains the same (three sessions); so the aerobic phase can be covered in the free days. If only three or even two weekly sessions are possible, mixed programs can be adopted: after the anaerobic fitness, always done at the beginning of the session, 15-20 minutes of aerobic fitness are added for balancing the two phases (anaerobic and aerobic). In this case, also, training must not take longer than one hour and a half; otherwise the phase of catabolic processes is initiated – a phase in which muscles 'self-cannibalize'.

Anaerobic fitness is recommended to all somatic types, with specific differences of modality of training.

In the cases of ectomorphic and mezomorphic types, all the series (3 or 4) performed on the same machine must be finished, and then the machine and the group of muscles which is trained must be changed at the same time. This system is also called 'workshop training'.

In the case of the endomorphic type (the overweight), circuit training is preferred: the group of muscles trained is changed after every series and the whole circuit must be repeated three or four times. This type of training consumes more calories because an aerobic component is introduced by not having breaks between series and slightly increasing the cardiac frequency.

Growth of muscular mass through fitness programs can't exceed one weight category (5-6 kg), but they do not misbalance the other motion parameters.

Read More

Free Weights Or Weightlifting Machines To Build Bigger Muscles?

Are free weights such as dumbbells and barbells are more superior to weightlifting machines for building bigger muscles? Well, both free weights and weightlifting machines have its own pros and cons.

•Advantages of weightlifting machines

a) Excellent for beginners because it is not so intimidating and the range of motion is fixed, so a bodybuilding novice need not wonder whether he is lifting correctly to target a muscle group.

b) Easy to use as machines usually have instructions on them.

c) Safer – It won’t drop on you in a middle of a lift.

d) Isolate your muscles so that you can rest your injured body part and yet able to workout other muscle part.

•Disadvantages of Weightlifting Machines

a) Increase injury risks since the range of motion is fixed and repeated workout will place tremendous stress on the same joints, tendons and muscles because you are lifting on a fixed pathway.

b) Because of its isolation of muscles, your workout hit only the targeted muscles with little involvement of supporting or synergistic thus your muscle gains will be slower and less balanced.

c) Since weight lifting machines have fixed configuration, your workout does not factor in your body frame and structure. Whether you have a big or small built, narrow or wide shoulders, you will be using the same pathway range of motion and width of grip. This will raise your chances of being injured as well as poorer muscle development.

•Advantages of free weights

a) More stabilizing muscles synergistic muscles are involved. So you are actually exercising more muscles and therefore will develop more muscle growth and strength.

b) Improve your balance and muscle coordination since you need to balance the weights during your lift and this call on many muscles to do so. So your muscle coordination and sense of balance will naturally improve.

c) Convenient and inexpensive since you need not join a gym and free weights are much less expensive than machines.

•Disadvantages of free weights 

a) Increase injury risks if lifting with wrong form and technique.

b) Time consuming because you need to bring the weights from one area to another or physically taking time to adjust, add or decrease weights.

So which is better for building bigger and well balanced muscles? Yup, free weight takes the cake over weight lifting machines for building muscles faster and bigger.
However, since both weightlifting machines and free weights have its own advantages and disadvantages, you can then weigh the pros and cons to use machines or free weights for your workouts or even a combination of both to suit your personal requirements.

Read More