Changing Nutritional Needs throughout Life

Age affects our nutritional needs. Sometimes the differences are obvious. It is easy to see the difference in the amount and types of food an infant, school-age child, teenager, and adult need. Other differences are more subtle. You may not realize that, as you get older, your calorie needs decrease, especially if you become less active. Being aware of such...

Smoking’s Damaging Effects on Your Body

In addition to the addictive drug nicotine, the other principal harmful substances in cigarettes are tar and carbon monoxide. Tar is a sticky, brown residue that collects in the lungs. Primarily made up of chemicals known as hydrocarbons, tar is a powerful cancer-causing agent that has been linked to the development of lung cancer. Carbon monoxide is...

The Dangers of Anabolic Steroids

Professional and amateur athletes sometimes use supplements or drugs to improve their physical performance. Anabolic steroids are probably the most well-known performance-enhancing drugs, and the most dangerous. These synthetic drugs imitate the effects of the male hormone testosterone. The drugs have approved medical uses, but athletes use them to make their muscles bulkier and stronger.

The Different Types of Exercise

There are different types of exercise, and each type has different effects on your body. Some types of exercise improve flexibility and muscle strength. Others use the large muscles in your body to build heart strength. Still others increase endurance. Exercises fall into three categories—aerobic, strength conditioning, and flexibility. Which type is best...

Hair Color Treatments for a Sensitive Scalp

Wanting to cover those grey strands or simply want to change your hair color for a different look? Think again. Studies about hair color treatments reveal that 5% of frequent hair dye users are bound to have sensitive scalp or develop allergies in the long run. However, those who already have sensitive skin will see and feel negative effects as soon as harsh chemicals in hair color touch their scalp. These effects are redness, burning sensation, dryness and itch, and usually caused by the following ingredients: 1. Harsh Chemicals in Hair Dye A...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Why Promoting Fitness at Work is More than Just a Trend

One of the reasons people always use to justify their weight gain is that they don’t have time to work out since they are tied up with their work. But deep down they know that’s not true because if they want to do something, they will always find the reason to do it.

But since they say their work is the one that’s getting them out of shape, wouldn’t it better if they could bring their workout to their work? There are more and more companies who are associating work with fitness by turning their training room into fitness center. Fitness has never been just a temporary obsession. It should be a lifetime concept.

So here are the reasons why companies should never think that such program is nothing more than just a trend and start such initiation within the organization:

1. Employees have more energy. Imagine instead of smoking or eating junk food during lunch or break time, employees get to lift dumbbells or use fitness band. Subsequently, this activity lifts their spirits and mood as well, making them more productive instead of drowsy after their break.

2. This program promotes camaraderie and motivation among fellow employees. Employees can buddy-up or team up with their fellow colleagues and tally up the total amount of pounds lost at the end of the month to see who wins. Management or team leaders can set up a reward for the team who’s lost the biggest weight. Employees are also more inclined to stick to their weight loss goal when they know many people are counting on them to lose weight, so this builds trust and cooperation as well.

3. Employee satisfaction. Employees feel a sense of gratitude towards the management because they feel more taken care of; thus, lower employee turnover rate, higher productivity, tighter community, and greater creativity happen in the workplace.

4. Companies save more by investing more for their employees. Fitter employees means reduced health care cost and lower rate of employee absenteeism. There are financial risks that are worth taking and this is one of them.

5. This program puts employees to healthy state of mind. If you are physically trying to achieve a healthy body, it will be hard to contradict that with a shabby outlook in life. This means that employees’ dietary habits as well as other internal values will change as well to support what their bodies are doing. This translates to them choosing more organic, home-cooked meals over fast food. The effect will propel them to pass it down to the other members of the family and so on.

Of course not all companies can afford such luxury, so what these companies do in turn is just give out incentives or discounts to fitness center. The result won’t be as effective but either way, it is a win-win situation where both the company and the employee benefit from the program.

So until the company starts investing in gym equipment, perhaps it would be wiser for the employees to take advantage of their company’s wellness incentive program. Or they could proactively bring dumbbells to their cubicle to encourage them to lift it when they are feeling stressed.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Strength Training to Tone Your Muscles

Do you frown whenever you see a cute sleeveless top, knowing you could never wear it because of the sagging skin under your arms? Do you sometimes bemoan the fact that your upper arms look like loose chicken wings? Do you find yourself struggling to fit into a pair of jeans because everything on your legs feels loose? Then perhaps it is time to hit a fitness regimen of some sort! But perhaps you have heard before that you will need to undergo a strict cardiovascular program in order to lose the excess fat. But do you know that there is a better way to tone those muscles?

Many women shy away from strength training thinking that it is only designed to bulk up muscles like the ones you see on the Incredible Hulk. Naturally, the average woman would not want her muscles to look like that, with the exception of those who are actually proud of their biceps on the covers of Sports Illustrated. But strength training is indeed not only limited to giving you large bulky muscles. If you know how to do it properly, it can actually tone your muscles and enhance your silhouette! The basic things you need to know about strength training are as follows:

1. The effects of strength training differ based on the weight that you carry. In order to bulk up, you need to workout with heavy weights, or those that you cannot lift more than five times per set. This builds strength, which results in the bulky muscles. So if you want to tone your muscles, opt for weights that you can lift at twenty times per set, and do three sets at a time. What happens is that you are building endurance, and your muscles break down and then repair themselves into longer, leaner form.

2. Take important note of the principle of rest. What happens during strength training is that the muscles break down from the strain, and then they rebuild themselves. This is why personal trainers and experts require at least a 24-hour gap between strength training sessions. If you go to a gym, they will likely instruct you to do strength training three times a week and intersperse those times with two or three times of cardiovascular exercise. This is in order to give your muscles time to recuperate and build themselves back up. If you fail to give them the rest they need, you will wind up with injured muscles.

3. Strength training may not necessarily make you lose more weight than cardiovascular training, but it will usually make you look leaner and fitter. This is because strength training builds muscle, and muscle is heavier than fat. So do not worry if your scale tells you that you are not losing weight as fast as you would like, since doing strength training will definitely burn up your fat but build up muscle mass in exchange.

4. The good news is, in the long run, muscles burn more calories than fat, even at rest. This means that the muscles you build up will help you burn even when you are just sleeping or doing nothing, which protects you from gaining back unwanted weight even if you wind up eating a little too much sometimes. Or, once you stop exercising, you still have a leeway of about a few months as the muscles continue to burn extra calories. You will only wind up gaining back weight once the muscle tone itself wears off, which you would not want to happen anyway!

5. Lastly, be sure to do your workouts properly. Working out with dumbbells is a lot more complicated than riding an exercise bike because you need to know the proper way to hold and lift them or else you risk injury. If you do not have a personal trainer, check magazines for illustrations, or better yet, find how-to videos on the Internet for the proper form. It will serve you well in the long run as you start to see the results you desire.

Now that you know that working with weights can actually work for your benefit, go ahead and buy a couple of dumbbells, and tone those muscles up for a better-looking, better-feeling you!

Friday, May 6, 2011

How to select the best Home Gym Equipment?

Almost everyone today has been educated on the benefits of getting regular exercise and gym. Yet still there are maximum people who are not exercising, while many of us are not active at all. Due to our busy schedule, we are not having the time to visit gym, or go for a run. Most doctors suggest that a person should exercise three to five times a week for about a half an hour to remain happy and healthy. So think for gym equipment at your home only where you would be able to save your time and money too. But before buying any home gym equipment you must be well-informed, otherwise you would not be able to judge the best and desired equipment. There is ample number of home exercise equipments available in the market like free weights, weight training machines, home gyms etc.

A home gym is a particular place of your home which consists of compact unit of equipment designed to perform many exercises at one station.

A home gym should have the following components:

1.An adjustable bench for sitting or reclining
2.Stacked metal weights with pin selection for load
3.Pull down bars mainly for the lat pull down back exercise
4.Press bars for pushing and pulling, for shoulders, arms and back
5.Leg extension system for quadriceps muscles of the thigh
6.Leg curl system for exercising the hamstrings at back of the thigh
7.Seated cable row system for back and arms exercise.

Types of home gym setups:

There are generally 6 types of home gym setups available in the market:

1.Free weight stations- It consists of adjustable benches, power racks for holding barbells, dumbbells, barbells and round weights.
2.Multi-gyms based on steel or composite bands and cords- It comprise of the flexing band which creates the resistance. Example: Bowflex and Weider.
3.Total Gym concept- This concept uses an adjustable height, inclined bench and sliding seat platform that uses your own body weight to increase resistance. For instance: Total Gym 1500.
4.Multi-gyms based on stacked weights- This kind of set-ups uses a cable and pulley mechanism with stacked weights. You need to move the peg to select the weight. Example: latest Body Solid EXM series.
5.Multi-gyms with provision for free weight plates- It consists of round weights which are manually fitted to the barbell extensions. Example: Powertec Workbench.
6.Smith machine multi combinations- It uses a mechanism that constrains the bar in one vertical plane, unlike free-weight benches and racks. Example: Mega Smith System which is commonly used.

Besides above 6 home gym equipment setup Aerobic exercise equipment such as treadmills, rowers and stationary bikes are also considered as the beneficial equipments that you can choose for your home gym. You should always ask the seller for tips and instructions to maintain the equipment properly.

Fitness Equipment Review

The fitness equipments are highly-durable iron equipments that works for significantly prolonged period of time and are heavy-duty materials with different durability; colors ans styles with a specific shape to tune to the satisfaction of every body type thereupon.

Thousands of national and international manufacturing companies have indulged themselves to cater to the needs of the customer based according to the tastes or likings and disliking of the customer to acquire there specific tool from the domestic or International markets (oversees).

There are number of Tele-product marketing companies who sells there fitness equipments in relatively cheaper ate as compared to any other shop available in th expensive market because many commutes complained of being mislead by the amount of money charged by the retailers to them and inferior quality product is what they received in return.

A fitness training equipment must always comply to the international standards and developmental procedures so that a genuine product be launched in the market safe and sound.

It is a decade of continuous operation of selling and purchasing ample amount of fitness equipments with a compliment and commitment of the manufacturing units so that each consumer should live up to the expectations of the product and the product in turn could become a genuine asset with beneficial results in-hand.

The computer aided designing; manufacturing; engineering accessories; sales; distribution and giving an exact number of best body-weight-resistance to the consumer is every companies dream and desire so that more and more commuters be cajoled to buy these products immediately fro the market and experience the difference of it.

Before buying a fitness equipment a customer must always ensure that the equipment should be of high-quality, should be most functional and safest or durable to handle with care. Today’s fitness equipments are so light and convenient that the exerciser could also watch T.V. and listen to radios or music stations on headphones while working over hard to burn up that excessive calorie from the body. Casual jogging might imply all such features as additional features towards an exerciser.

Fitness Equipment Review

Few versions of fitness equipments:

* Dual Axis Chest press; Lat pull down; Rear delt/ Pec fly; Vertical & seated row; Lateral Raise; Bicep curl; Leg extension; Assisted dip chin; Glute machine; Prone leg curl; Adductor/ Abduitor; Angled calf; Cable cross overs; High and low pulley and multi-functional stations are some of the equipments available in the domestic market.

* Fitness tool Bio-mechanics: The Bio-mechanics is a computer assisted designing of the equipment in order to ensure that correct weight be assessed in the specifi machine.

* Welding of the equipment: All four side or corners of the machine should be conveniently welded thoroughly so that the construction be made for rugged Fail-proof strength of the structure.

* Range of equipment motions: A specially designed Variable Resistence Cams are implied whivh are bio-mechanically engineered in order to meet and sustian desired load levels throughout the continuous motion of the exercising machine.

* Frames & Powder coated finishing: The frames are fabricated specially so that the structure of a bright cold rolled steel tubing be achieved i.e. further milled and then machined in a manufacturing place. The failure of the joints are virtually eliminated and is provided with a life-time guarantee of the structure. An electro-statistical texture is applied to the frame for powder coating finish which further consists of an average 80 microns thickness thereupon.

* The cables of 4200 lbs of weight with thick high-density foaming to the seating of the fitness equipments and additional guide rodss are utilized which is secured by nylon bushings allows free-floating of the movements of the fitness equipment. A pulley wheel is alsways convenient and handy to travel the equipment from one place to another.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

How to Strengthen Your Immune System

Yet, there are ways of improving the situation, such as eating fruit and vegetables, either fresh or frozen, foods that are rich in proteins and dairy products which are known to provide vitamins and calcium.

Researchers have found that frozen fruit and vegetables are a good source of nutrients and may be even more nourishing than the fresh kind, because the consisting nutrients may diminish through transportation and storage. Vitamins found in fruit give reliable help in improving the immune system which should be strengthen even more during the cold season. Increase the amount of Vitamin C for a better protection against viruses. The best fruit to eat for the purpose are apples, citrus fruits and kiwi.

Another ally of our immune system is Vitamin E, which can be found in great amounts in sunflower seeds, nuts, peanuts and almonds. Moreover, nuts are rich in Vitamin D, also known as ‘the vitamin of the sun’ (because the human body synthesizes this vitamin under the sun rays). It is recommendable that we spend at least 30 minutes a day in the open and eat yolk, liver, cream, butter and milk in order to keep this vitamin.

Vitamin A helps the body fight against bacteria and viruses. Also, the lack of Vitamin A brings about the loss of Vitamin C, which affects the general health of the individual. The foods rich in Vitamin A are: liver, dairy products, eggs, fish oil, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkin, peanuts and spinach.

The right quantity of Vitamins A and E contributes to the maintenance of the skin, which otherwise may deteriorate and become dry especially in winter.

So, let’s take proper care of ourselves and improve our eating habits for a healthier and easier life

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