Friday, December 18, 2009

Benefits of Exercise

Exercise is considered important for:
  • Reducing depression and anxiety
  • Reducing your risk of heart disease
  • Building and maintaining healthy muscles, bones, and joints
  • Reducing the risk of developing diabetes
  • Reducing high cholesterol
  • Reducing high blood pressure or the risk of developing high blood pressure
  • Boosting your mood and giving you more energy
  • Losing weight
  • Reducing stress
  • Helping you sleep better
  • Increasing bone density
  • Strengthening the heart and lungs
  • And overall improving your quality of life

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Role of fruits and vegetables in fat loss

Losing fat is simple. All you have to do is stuff your diet with fruits and vegetables and you’ll end up eating fewer calories overall and the fat will just melt off your body.

Fruits and vegetables promote weight loss due to following reasons:
  • They are low in fat.
  • They are low in calories.
  • They are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
  • They eliminate wastes quickly and help reduce cravings for sweets.
  • They keep your energy levels steady so you don't become too hungry or too tired.They carry off excess body acids, and are rich in vitamins, minerals and enzymes that satisfy the body's nutrient requirements with less food.
If you find it difficult to include a variety of fruits and vegetables into your family's diet, you can substitute some servings with fresh fruit juices, thick and frothy fruit smoothies, fresh vegetable juices, and gazpacho. Juicing allows you to eat more of the vegetables than you would normally otherwise.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Building muscle- at home on your own

Every guy wants to build a killer physique. But when it comes down to working out, many of us makes a number of excuses. I have no time to workout. I want to watch t.v. or listen music in my spare time. I hate gyms. The gym's too far away. Blah, blah, blah.

Well, you can kiss those excuses goodbye. I am presenting the workouts which can be done at home. These exercises doesn't require any gym equipments. This will take your just 20 minutes from your heavy schedule. These exercises can be done while watching t.v. or listening music.

  • BODY-WEIGHT SQUAT (legs) : Put your hands on your hips or fold them over your chest. From a standing position, feet about shoulder-width apart, squat down until both knees reach 90 degrees . As you lower yourself, keep your lower back slightly arched, head up, and stick your glutes out as if you were going to sit in a chair. Also, be sure that your knees aren't out past your toes as you descend--if they are, you're not moving your glutes back far enough on the descent. Once you reach the bottom position, flex through your quads, hamstrings and glutes to power yourself back up to a standing position and repeat.
  • INVERTED PUSH-UP (shoulders) : Place your feet on a chair and your hands out in front of you at shoulder-width. Without moving your feet, creep your hands backward until your body is bent almost 90 degrees and your head is facing the floor. Press up until your arms are straight--you should resemble an inverted V--then slowly lower your head toward the floor until your arms are almost bent 90 degrees and repeat.
  • PUSH-UP (chest) : Place your hands a little wider than your shoulders, put your toes on the floor, feet and legs together, and raise up into an arms-extended position. Slowly lower yourself until your chest just touches the floor, return to the starting position and repeat. As you lower yourself, concentrate on feeling the stretch in your chest, and flex on the way up rather than using a quick piston action to finish your set.
  • LYING TORSO RAISE (lower back) : Lie facedown on the floor and place your hands loosely behind your neck. Slowly raise your upper body until your chest is a few inches off the floor. You should feel your lumbar spine and lower-back muscles contracting as you rise up. Hold the top position for a two-second count, slowly return to the starting position and repeat.
  • WEIGHTLESS CONCENTRATION CURL (biceps) : Standing, grasp your left wrist with your right hand. Apply pressure with the hand as you slowly and deliberately curl your left arm. Once your elbow is fully bent, give your biceps an extra squeeze and hold for a second before slowly lowering. Complete all reps for one side before switching arms. Since you don't have the benefits of a weight, you need to do this exercise in a controlled fashion--focus on keeping your working biceps fully engaged throughout each rep, and apply some challenging pressure with that nonworking hand.
  • CRUNCH (abs) : Lie faceup, your knees bent and feet on the floor. Keep your hands behind your head -avoid the temptation to pull on your head as you tire. Curl your torso as you bring your shoulder blades up a few inches, squeeze your abs, and then slowly return to the starting position. To keep the pressure on, don't spend more than a second in the "down" position; the longer your shoulder blades are off the floor, the more work your abs must do.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Healthy Nutrition Plan

A sound and healthy nutrition plan contains enough carbohydrates to get your energy going throughout the day. And enough proteins to allow your tissues to rebuild themselves properly and maintain and grow new tissues. But a low fat level. Also, it is definitely important, and stressed by doctors everywhere, for you to get enough water daily. 7 glasses is usually a figure that is thrown around to necessitate the needs of most bodies.

Also, you should be sure to maintain a low cholesterol level. This can be achieved by avoiding excessive consumption of animal products such as eggs and meats. While eating meat can be a great way to achieve your daily protein levels, too much of it has proven to be damaging to ones health. By following these simple ideas, you can be on your way to a better, healthier nutrition. .

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Low Carb Diets

Low carb diet or low carbohydrate diets are dietary program to restrict consumption of high carbohydrates in our body (eg. bread, pasta). Low carb diets include higher percentage of proteins and fats (e.g., meat, soy products) and lower percentage of carbs(e.g., green leafy vegetables).

Low carb diets consist
low starch green vegetables, low glycemic fruits, meat, seafood, eggs, cheese( Up to 4 oz per day) & fat like Butter, mayonnaise, cream, margarine.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Physical Exercise

Physical exercise refers to any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health.

It is performed for many different reasons. These include strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance and for enjoyment. Physical exercise also helps in preventing the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.