Health & FitnessMarch

Nutrition ExerciseGymnasiums

Diets

Healthy Lifestyle

Workouts Keeping FitHealthy Eating

The idea of gyms is all very well, but they can be expensive. There’s membership, travel costs and dress code to all fork

out for and in this day and age why bother when you can exercise from the comfort of your own home and

there’s no need for equipment either. So turn the telly on or your music on loud and listen to

your favourite tunes when doing your exercise in private.

You can begin to get fitter by being more active around the house. Simply doing more housework gets the body moving and stretching. Also you can get outside into the garden, an enjoyable few hours gardening is a great form of exercise. Both activities involve a lot of stretching, lifting, bending up and down, and more, therefore using all your muscle groups. By doing this you not only feel good in yourself afterwards, but you can see the results of your hard work in your home and garden!

FITNESS - GETTING STARTED AT HOME

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There are plenty of exercises which can be done at home:l Walking

Walking is an easy one and one of the most effective exercises you can do. There’s

an article on the benefits of walking elsewhere in this magazine. If you don’t fancy going out for a walk in the countryside then you can always walk up and down your stairs. This tones the legs and is classed as a low impact aerobic

exercise. If you have no stairs then walking around the house will still do the job.

l Jog on the spotThis exercise is great for the heart. You can watch TV

and football even!

l Step ExercisesUsing the steps, do repetitions up an down with each leg. This will tone your leg muscles.

l Star JumpsStar Jumps, or as the Americans call them

– Jumping Jacks are another great exercise. Put your feet together and your arms down

by your side. Then jump and open your legs and raise your arms above you. This is a great cardio exercise and warms you up quickly too.

l Dancing Dancing can be a good way of exercise and

as your doing it at home, no one is going to see your embarrassing dance moves. You can really party on down. Even better if you have a games system like a wii or kinetic to keep up with the game itself. Dancing is extremely good for the heart and will cheer you up no end. This then

gives a general boost to your being.

l Leg lifts Build up strength and muscles in your legs. This

exercise is hard to do at first especially with your legs straight, if so just bend them slightly. After a week or so, you’ll have sufficient strength to keep them straight.

l CrunchesLay on your back and then raise your head while you raise your knees to meet it. This is brilliant for the abdominals. As long as you feel the stretching of the abdominals then you’re strengthening those muscle groups.

l SquatsThese help the legs and buttocks and can be done simply by sitting down and standing up in a chair. Repeat. Very easy to do but also very effective if you repeat them often enough. You can then build up to doing squats without the chair. Stand with your feet shoulder-witdth apart, squat down by bending your knees, make sure you keep your back straight, and don’t lean forwards. Then go back to the upright position.

l PushupsYeah sure they’re hard to begin with but after a week or so, that first 20 you did will be a breeze. If you can’t do a normal push up then build your arm strength up by doing pushups against a wall or do them on the floor but on your knees. Once the arms are strong enough you can do the normal straight legged ones.

l Weight liftingRather than go out and buy expensive weights, just use the heaviest objects you have to hand. Start light then build the weight. Use bags of sugar or potatoes. Water bottles are also useful.

By exercising at home you won’t be put off by others, and as you’re comfortable you’ll be more likely to keep the exercise up at the beginning stages. Once you see the results and the slow change to your body you’ll gain encouragement and want to do more

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Workout at Home!You can keep your body in decent shape and prevent minor injuries by performing simple weight-free exercises such as in the workout below. It addresses every major muscle group and can be done in just a few minutes, anytime, anywhere. Perform them a couple of times a week. Start off with these simple exercises, and then you can progress to using weights! ...Continued on page 37

HAMSTRINGSStand with arms overhead and feet wide apart. Proceed to bend at the waist and extend the left hand to the right foot. Pause, then rise and extend the right hand to the left foot. Perform 10 alternating repetitions to each foot.

BACKLie on your stomach with hands behind head. Proceed to slowly lift the head, shoulders and feet off the floor. Pause, then lower to starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

THIGHSStand with hands on hips and legs shoulder-width apart, feet turned out. Keeping the back straight and head up, proceed to lower six or so inches. Pause, then rise to starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

OBLIQUESStand with arms at sides and feet wide apart. Bend to the left, with the left hand sliding down the thigh and the right arm extending over the head. Pause, then return to starting position. Perform 10 alternating bends to each side.

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So it’s March and you’ve had a good Christmas and New Year. Now that January and February have passed, you wake up one early March morning, when it’s got a little warmer and you’re not covered in multiple warm clothes, you look at yourself in the mirror and go...damn!

All that good living and winter hibernation has put some serious huge poundage on your belly and with the weather changing for spring you now want to start wearing summer stuff once more. With a large coat and jumper you could get away with a extra tire but you sure as hell can’t now.

So what are the options?

Be one of those keen types we see on the TV who irritate the crap out of us? You know the ones ‘Oh yes, I go on a 5 mile run before breakfast’, when all you can do is stagger to the toilet and back again to bed.

You could sign up for the Gym but in these hard times that can be expensive and anyway you’d be

surrounded by those keen types so why go through that when you can get fit on your own. No embarrassment and no cost. Sorted.

So how is it done?

Simply by walking!The health benefits

are extensive.

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Going on a regular walk for 30 minutes a day, increases your muscle strength and your stamina.

Feeling tired? Go for a walk, and you’ll gain energy. Walking also improves your sleep so you can have more energy all day.

It’s excellent for your heart also as it reduces blood pressure and increases blood circulation. Regular walkers have less heart attacks and strokes.

Strengthens the bones through increasing their density. Walking slows down bone loss in your legs. It also benefits the hips and your spine.

When walking you are using both sides of the brain (the intuitive right and the reasoned left) and this brings mental well being. Using both sides of the brain can also help solve certain problems that you might be having. How many times have you heard the old saying ‘I’m going out to clear my head’? It’s because it works.

Walking stimulates the brain and its neurons and synapses. This can stave off faltering memory for people over the age of 50 and in the long run can prevent dementia. It can also lessen depression and anxiety.Walking outside in the fresh air plus the exercise improves your mood.

Walking can also help you stop smoking. As walking improves your mood, this enhances hormones that decrease any cravings you have and so stops you thinking about smoking.

A longer walk once or twice a week has been found to reduce the need for medication.

Other benefits are that it prevents type 2 diabetes. If you walk for 2 and a half hours a week you can greatly reduce any risk of this form of diabetes. It reduces colon cancer as well as breast cancer in ladies. It also lowers bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol.

And one of the best things about walking is that it’s safer than running. Next time you see those keen running types who stagger past you in the sun looking like their about to keel over and die, be sure to remember that with walking there’s little damage to your knees or joints, unlike running. By brisk walking you get exactly the same amount of exercise than you do with jogging.

When compared to people who don’t exercise then regular walks lower the chances of cancer and arthritis.

Walking increases your immune system and it also improves your sex life. Walking builds stamina and so that pays off in the bedroom. For ladies, walking improves sexual desire and satisfaction.

But we’re not doing this walking milarky for all that are we? We’re really doing it to bring our weight down and look good in the summer sun.

Walking reduces weight and fat and makes you appear healthier and therefore younger. Which can only be a good thing when you’re out and about on the Costa del Sol. Ideally if you can go for a brisk walk with a friend/friends then the time you walk will just fly by. Going with a friend also reduces any chance of tiredness from the walk as studies have shown that the pain threshold of doing a workout is greatly reduced when you exercise together. Walking (or exercising) with a friend releases more endorphins that allow you to up the stakes with your exercise routine.

Music also increases your abilities with what you do as exercise but obviously doesn’t give you the same amount of motivation.

The nice thing about walking is that once it becomes your exercise routine, you are far more likely to stick with it. It’s easy to drop weight training and the like but what could be simpler than a brisk walk?

If at first you can’t even face going out of the house for a walk, remember that you can always do it inside at first. Walking around the house at speed and up stairs can put you into better shape and once you’re comfortable enough you can venture outside.

Overall I’d definitely recommend walking. It’s free, extremely good for you and bear in mind you can always do a brisk walk to the pub! That way, you can gain energy, cheer yourself up, improve your sex life and your looks, increase ideas for any job your doing and improve your all round health completely. That can’t be bad now, can it?

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SHOULDERSBegin in a push-up position, but with hands facing each other and elbows out to sides. Proceed to push up to arms’ length. Pause, then lower to starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

ABDOMINALSKneeling on hands and knees, push the abdominals and back downward. Then proceed to tighten abs and arch the back. Perform 10 repetitions.

HIPS & GLUTESLie on your left side with the right leg over the left. Proceed to raise the right leg. Pause, then lower. Perform 10 repetitions, then turn over for 10 reps with the left leg.

TRICEPSBegin with your hands on a chair or other object behind you, arms straight and body supported on heels. Proceed to slowly lower until upper arms are almost parallel to the floor. Pause, then raise to starting position. Do 10 repetitions.

BICEPSSit with your bent right arm inside the right leg. Place your left hand on your right wrist and provide resistance as you curl the right arm up. Pause, then lower to starting position. Do 10 repetitions, then switch arm positions for another set.

CHESTStand with arms out to sides, hands fisted. Proceed to cross arms in front of you, right over left. Pause, then return to starting position and on the return cross arms left over right. Perform 10 alternating repetitions each way.

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A nation of ‘secret boozers’: English people underestimate how much alcohol they drinkEngland is a nation of secret boozers, with more than a third of the population drinking unhealthy quantities of alcohol, new research suggests.

The finding, which also uncovers high levels of binge drinking, is based on the discrepancy between alcohol sales and the amount people say they drink in surveys.

International studies show that self-reported alcohol consumption only accounts for between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of sales.

After taking this into account, an estimated 44 per cent of men and 31 per cent of women in England were found to be drinking more than the Royal College of Physicians’ safety guidelines for weekly alcohol consumption.

If you are reading this sitting down then the chances are you are also increasing your risk of developing heart disease, blood clots on the brain and even certain types of cancer.The latest evidence suggests that being seated for much of the day can also increase your risk of developing diabetes. However, standing up daily for an extra 90 minutes significantly lowers your chances of developing this serious metabolic disorder.

A growing body of research is finding that sitting down for extended periods may be one of the most dangerous things we do and that the mere act of standing up – rather than doing physical exercise – is perhaps the best antidote.

Gonorrhea cases soar as STI gets more resistant to treatmentCases of gonorrhoea have soared 25 percent in a year as experts warn the disease is becoming more resistant to treatment.

The spike has led to the launch of a new campaign to tackle the growing threat in England and Wales.

Cases of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) jumped by a quarter in 2011 amid an emerging resistance to treatment and an absence of new therapeutic options in the last decade.

Health experts are hoping the first Gonorrhoea Resistance Action Plan will increase awareness of the disease, which is the second most common bacterial STI in England.

Desk workers - stand up for your health: Millions may be making themselves ill by spending their working lives sitting down

Doctors warn of the rise in Zumba InjuriesDoctors around the world say they are seeing an increase in Zumba related injuries, no doubt because more people are trying the hugely popular fitness classes. Zumba may be a great way to “party yourself into shape,” but according to a number of doctors, the wildly popular dance-fitness program may also be a good way to party yourself into pain.

Zumba related injuries can range from ankle sprains, shin splints, heel spurs and plantar fasciitis to hip bursitis, muscle strains and knee problems requiring surgery. This is due to the fact that there’s so much side-to-side movement so you really need to synchronize your hips, your knees, your feet and your ankles so they’re going in the same direction. If you move in one direction and the joint doesn’t go with you in that direction, it’s a setup for injury.

An email survey issued by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons got responses from doctors who say they’re regularly seeing Zumba students for ankle sprains, ankle fractures, torn meniscus, overuse injuries and more. They also say they see at least one to two Zumba related injuries a week.

Preventing Zumba InjuriesAny time you have a new sports exercise craze you tend to see more injuries. People have a clear understanding of basic forms of exercise, but with some of these new forms, you don’t necessarily see that. Here are just a few tips to take on board when taking part in a Zumba class.

Wear the right shoes and avoid floors such as carpeting or hard tile.

Women slip on any trainers that they think will match their outfit and don’t realise the dangers in not wearing proper shoes. Invest in proper supportive footwear. Dance shoes are a good idea because they pivot easily and there’s a lot of pivoting in Zumba.

Other ways of preventing getting injured is to avoid classes that are way too congested as people run into each other when arms and legs are getting flung around in all different directions.

There are a number of new, fast paced exercise or fitness classes around today. This is due to the demand for exercising to become more fun and sociable rather than the mundane routine of jogging on a treadmill for hours. Music and dance infused exercise classes are still a great way to keep fit so don’t be discouraged. However, remember to take part wisely to avoid any unwanted mishaps!

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5 Methods to curb your appetite that actually work!

You may be thinking that summer is still ages way and that you have plenty of time to get into shape and lose that unwanted weight put on over the winter. Well you haven’t, as summer is only two months away as the month of May really marks the start to summer. However, without taking into account exercise, just trying to curb your appetite can be the most challenging task when trying to lose weight. It seems that when you hear the words “diet” or “weight loss” suddenly you crave everything in sight.

If this sounds like you, then try out these methods to help curb your appetite and avoid the cravings!

4 Pick high fibre foods. Certain foods will help you feel full faster and avoid over

indulging at meal time. Eat high fibre foods to help keep you full longer and control hunger. Foods like apples are great for curbing appetite as they are high in fibre, loaded with lots of nutrients and take longer to chew. This extra chewing time gives your brain time to receive the signal that you are full.

1 Try eating a small amount every 3 or 4 hours to prevent insatiable hunger. By

eating more often you are keeping your body satisfied and your mind off the snacks and wrong foods. This method will help you control hunger all day long.

2 Tea or coffee can also help to curb your appetite. The caffeine in

these products is a natural appetite suppressant. But don’t overdo it on these items as you don’t want to be wired all day long. However, a cup or two when needed will help you stay away from the wrong foods and eat less so you can lose weight.

3 High protein foods help keep cravings at bay. You should eat

protein with each and every meal. Foods high in protein take longer to digest and do not cause a high spike in your blood glucose levels like carbs can. Your proteins don’t always have to be from meats. For instance, pine nuts contain the highest amount of protein of any nuts or seeds and helps stimulate two hunger suppressing hormones.

5 Another great way to help curb cravings and lose weight is

exercise. When exercising, your body releases endorphins which can naturally suppress your appetite. Of course exercising does way more than this. There are many medical benefits of exercise plus you are burning fat and calories.

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The RiseX formula is made up of purely natural ingredients. This important fact gives you the confidence to use RiseX without the worries of the unwanted side effects and health risks of male sexual enhancement products. RiseX is safer than any prescription drug and at the same time has better immediate and long-term effects when compared to Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra.

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