Fitness And Health

Posts Tagged ‘Fitness’

Chronic back pain is one of the most vexing problems that you can have.  Not being able to find comfort in any position and the resulting problems.

You can work on back pain by helping your back get stronger and healthier.  Remember pain pills are ok to take if you really need them but they don’t solve the underlying problem.

You can begin to address the problem by noticing your posture and beginning to correct it when it is poor.  Massage is good.  Getting your back more flexible can also help, check out: Kundalini Yoga.  There are also more traditional exercises – there is a good video at the end of this post that you should watch.  These are just a couple of ideas to help resolve your back problems.

Don’t Let Chronic Back Pain Limit Your Brain Power

Exercises to Reduce Back Pain : Exercises for Back Pain Relief: The Bird Dog

Resistance Training Eases Low Back Pain « Intuitive Wellness

Did you know that low back pain is second only to the common cold in reasons patients visit their doctors. It is the 6th most costly medical condition in the United States, the second leading cause of disability, and the number one …

How to Prevent Back Pain | Yoga Ride

You know what it’s like when your back is hurting. It becomes challenging to do most anything, even simple things we take for granted like walking, running, and climbing stairs. Grocery shopping, runs to the post office and just being …

FSHL Blog » Blog Archive » Acupuncture Relieves Back Pain

Low back pain is one the most common complaints doctors hear. Yes, that annoying chronic back pain you get after a long day at work. I’m pretty sure you’d wish to get rid of it and feel relieved at long last. No one wants it, …

Holistic Healers Know Back Pain Relief | stotsindia.org

There are so many people looking for back pain relief these days that back pain is one of the largest epidemics the world has seen. It causes loss of productivity more than any other condition known. And, this does not need to be. …

Related articles on back pain

• The golf column: how to cure back pain? Play don’t practise (telegraph.co.uk)
• MRI abundance may lead to excess in back surgeries, Stanford study shows (scienceblog.com)

The best way to build a stronger body is with the use of weights.
This can be with free weights such as dumbbells and barbells, weight machines, or a combination of the two.

Many purists believe that the only way to do weight training correctly is with free weights as they bring into play all the other muscles required to control and balance the movement of the weights.

It is correct that more muscles are required to lift free weights due to the fact that more control is required but the development of weight machines in recent years has been such that they can also offer benefits that free weights can’t give.

By eliminating the factor of control from specific movements it is possible to lift heavier weights and this in turn can stimulate more growth in the muscle.

In addition to this is the fact that many machines are designed to maintain pressure on the muscles throughout the full range of the movement.
Free weights, on the other hand, generally have the least effect on muscle growth at the top and bottom of any movement.

To explain this better we will use the example of the arm curl where a barbell is curled up from a position resting against the thighs to the chest using the bicep muscles.

When the barbell is at the top or the bottom of the movement there is no resistance on the muscle where as with a machine with the correct design elements there can be maximum tension even at those parts of the movement.

Cables and weight stacks will allow this to happen and due to this, you can expect to get additional benefits that aren’t possible with free weights.

Obviously a combination of both free weights and weight machines will deliver the optimum results in the least time.

In our expert article Craig Ballantyne creator of “Turbulence Training,” our offer to the right, discusses how the right exercise can be a “fountain of youth.” We have seen amazing results with a vigorous program involving both aerobics and weight training. Improved stamina and performance in all areas, even to the point of reversing the effects of type II diabetes. Give it a try, you have everything to gain.

The Anti-Aging Effects of Exercise

By Craig Ballantyne

Growth hormone is known as a “fountain of youth” in the anti-aging community because it helps build muscle and burn body fat. But research has shown that people who are overweight tend to have lower growth hormone levels.

Exercise is a proven way to boost those levels. However, most overweight individuals can’t do the 30 minutes of continuous exercise that it takes. So researchers from the University of Virginia wanted to see what would happen if they split their subjects’ workouts into shorter sessions.

The researchers had their subjects do either 30 minutes of continuous exercise or three 10-minute sessions, at the same intensity, spread out over the course of the day. Both groups achieved similar growth hormone levels, which led the researchers to conclude that the “split workout” would work just as well as continuous exercise.

These results aren’t just good news for obese folks who can’t handle 30 minutes of exercise at a time. They also offer relief to busy men and women who have a better chance of finding time for three short exercise sessions instead of one long one.

For maximum body-transformation results, I recommend one 10-minute session each of strength training, interval training, and bodyweight exercises. This will help you build muscle, burn fat, and improve your mobility.

[Ed. Note: Building muscle and burning fat doesn't have to take hours of work. Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne has put together a Turbulence Training program that can help you get fit in three 45-minute workouts a week.

For simple ideas that can help you find more energy, better health, less pain, and a dramatic boost in overall vitality, sign up for ETR's free natural health newsletter.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Governor Mike Huckabee took action when he received a diagnosis of Diabetes and changed his life and his whole state.

If you have a diagnosis of type-II diabetes take it as a challenge. Type II Diabetes is brought on by a combination of lifestyle and genetics – with lifestyle being the bigger part. That’s right, it’s your fault. You don’t get a pass for bad genes you must take responsibility for your lifestyle and for changing it. Watch Governor Huckabee’s story and how he took responsibility and used the diagnosis to change his life, the lives of those around him, and his whole state. We’ll pick up the discussion below:

And don’t believe for a minute that just taking the pill is the right approach. Diabetes and the habits that helped it form also put you at risk for other maladies. The changes you make by lowering your blood sugar and loosing weight will also relieve or prevent a spectrum of other health problems including:

1. High blood pressure
2. Heart disease
3. Stroke
4. Gallbladder disease
5. Joint pain
6. Sleep apnea
7. Arthritis
8. Breast cancer
9. Prostate cancer
10. Kidney cancer

You can read more about Governor Huckabee’s story at USA Today and CBN.

Affirmations are an aid to healing, getting fit, becoming successful, in fact they will aid you in any area of your life.

This post describes how you can record your own affirmations to play in the background or full up as you go through the day or just when you need a refresher. But I also want to state here and now that it is not necessary that they be recorded at all. Write them on an index card and bring it out and read them to yourself or aloud several times a day. It still works – I like them recorded and I let them play in the background on a loop as I work at the computer. Do it the way you’d like – just do it for yourself – do it to build yourself up to be the best person that you can be. That’s the most unselfish thing you can do – build a better you. You will, by becoming better, lift those around you. Even if you don’t intend to record affirmations stick with us for the background and a couple of ideas about writing affirmations.

Émile Coué is credited with popularizing affirmations with his famous ‘everyday in every way I’m getting better and better.’ Coué was a pharmacist who found that when he dispensed medicine with a good word that the medicine was more effective. From this he developed his daily affirmataions.

If you are trying to improve any area of your life from health to sports performance to how you do in school affirmations can help. Many people grew up being told various things both good and bad about themselves. A parents voice may ring in your head to this day and it affects your actions, what you believe you are capable of, what you believe the truth to be. The truth is, “what one man can accomplish, so can another.” The truth also is the mind has a powerful affect on the body and by putting your message in you can improve your lot. Put your message of the desired result and build yourself up.

Music is not required for affirmations but studies have been done suggesting that affirmations (and any form of learning) can be facilitated by playing Baroque music at the same time. Baroque music is at 60 beats/minute and that seems to be the key. Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is one piece with suitable music (largo tempo).

Affirmations or self-talk have long been recognized as a way to affect the way you look at and interact with the world. Affirmations affect both the conscious and unconscious mind allowing you to plan and sink ideas and actions into your life almost unnoticed.

In reality affirmations have been around almost forever. Consider these verses from Proverbs 4:

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep them in the midst of thine heart! Proverbs is promoting the idea of scripture as affirmations and keeping them in your heart.

Here is the whole idea Behind Affirmations:

1. State desired thought/action in a positive way.
2. Repeat.
3. Keep it in your heart, in other words keep it in mind all the time.
4. Keep to a single theme in your affermations for a few days or a week. Keep it short and repeat.

If you suffer from negative thoughts, create or find a good affirmation to replace it. Some people use Bible Quotes: Norman Vincent Peale in “The Power Of Positve Thinking” gave several scriptures for this purpose. Notably Philipians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” He was also fond of Romans 8:31, “If God be for me, who can be against me.” There are many in both testaments of the Bible that can be used if you are so inclined. Peale, a minister also made clear that even if you were not a believer that the techniques would still work.

Your affirmation should be positive and reflect a desired condition: “I see a picture of myself as having already reached my goal. The picture becomes clearer day-by-day as I work toward and achieve my goal.” This affirmation includes instruction to visualize your goal, to see it as already completed. This is a huge success factor in anything you want to do. “I do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy, fit and feeling good.” “Life is a wonderful dance, I enjoy my life and experiences, I attract the very best into my life and I am grateful.” Use words like: “I have” or “I Am,” say it in the present tense. Just a few ideas to get you started in creating your own and remember, your thoughts create your life.

I like to record about a minutes worth on a common theme and then loop the playback with Real Player or ITunes. You can read more about it and download free affirmations on this blog. There are lots of resources on the web and many want to charge money for affirmation recordings but there is no need to pay. The formulas are very simple and you can do it for yourself.

If you don’t have audio recording software, try Audacity – it’s open source and free. It should be able to do anything you need. Here’s where to find Audacity and the basics of how to install it:

1. Download Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/latest/audacity-win/audacity-win-1.2.6.exe
2. Execute and follow the prompts
3. Download lame: http://www.rarewares.org/dancer/dancer.php?f=226
4. Unzip it and save the file lame_enc.dll to C:\Program Files\Audacity. Ignore the rest of the zip contents.
5. The first time you use the “Export as MP3″ command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved. Point it to: C:\Program Files\Audacity

That should do it.

Remember keep your affirmations short (1 to 2 minutes). Keep it positive. Repeat.

Here are some books that can help you tune yourself mentally.
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