Exercise and Fitness

Senior Workouts – Healthy Aging with Exercise

All things being equal, becoming a senior citizen in today’s world is much like being a senior citizen in days gone past. We get old and we die. Yes, we all die but if we do it right we can age gracefully and hopefully, slowly. But, I guess, most of us older people don’t always do it right.

We eat way too much junk food and then we sit way too much and watch television or play video games, again, way too much. It finally gets to the point where the elderly have to overcome that huge stigma, namely that the older you are the more weaker and the more fragile you become.

This is unfortunate and it doesn’t have to be true, unless you want it too. That’s right! If you think you are weak and fragile than you really are weak and fragile. It’s all in your attitude baby. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, than stop thinking that garbage and change your attitude and, while you’re at it, SMILE.

Having that “adjustment” done to your way of thinking in itself is beneficial for your health, but to take it to the next level you need to feed that brain of yours with fresh blood. And you guessed it. The best way to do that is with EXERCISE. There’s nothing like fresh oxygenated blood running through your body and brain to make you feel great…again.

And, unless you want to spend the rest of your life in some wheel chair waiting for your caretaker to change your diaper because you’re too “weak and fragile“, you’re gonna want to exercise every damn day. Heck, exercising done correctly doesn’t have to be hard at all, but it is effective and making you healthy.

Daily exercise is the single most important thing that you can do to stay healthy throughout your senior years. Remember all those sports and games you used to play as a kid. We had a lot of kids on my block so we played a lot of football and baseball. My favorite used to be TAG. I never ran around so much in my life. Why should any of that change just because you turned 40?

The point is, any form of physical activity that you were able to do when you were young should still be appropriate today. Yes, there may be some limitations when first starting out, but anyone can increase muscle mass and resiliency at any age. Many forms of prolonged exercise are excellent for endurance and the preservation of your health. Just do it slow and do it steady.

Jogging has been cited as one of the easiest ways to start, though there are some reasons to start out more slowly that you once might have when you were very young. Advancing too far too fast will result in injury and disappointment. What I like to do is a combination of fast and slow walking. I would walk at a regular pace for one minute and then pick up the pace for another 30 seconds.

Incorrect aerobic exercise won’t improve your aerobic capacity, or the functional capacity of your cardiovascular system (your heart, lungs, and blood vessels). In fact, it will shrink your muscles, heart, and lungs. Not only that, but it will eliminate your reserve capacity, the heart and lung’s ability to deal with strenuous situations (heavy lifting, for example) or physical trauma.

When you start out swimming, it’s important to monitor your body’s signals. Breathlessness, dizziness or pain should signal you to get out of the water and rest for awhile. One of the reasons swimming is such excellent exercise is that it makes all your major muscle groups to work together. It’s easy at first to get carried away and become exhausted the first few times out. You’ll find that swimming can be the miracle exercise your body’s been looking for.

The PACE program focuses on variation; alternating between periods of exertion and recovery. By increasing the intensity and changing the duration of the intervals, your heart and lungs will build up the reverse capacity that was lost over years of the wrong kind of exercise.

As with any age, it’s important to rest an average of one day a week to allow your body to heal from this accelerated activity. Once you have put in a few months of pleasant, enjoyable physical exercise, you may suddenly find you’re feeling at least 20 years younger.

How To Build Muscle Quick With Less Work

By PHT Support

If you do a basic search on the internet, you will find millions of supposed miracle tips and tricks to build muscle quick. The problem is that many of these tips just plain don’t work. If you follow the advice in this article, you will be well equipped to build more muscle with less effort.

If you just follow three simple steps, you will be able to build more lean muscle in less time.

1. Workout More Intensely

It doesn’t matter what kind of workout plan you are using for your weight loss, it is absolutely certain that you could benefit from working out with more intensity. Too many people go into the gym hoping that just lifting a few weights will give them a tight toned body. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. If you actually want to see big changes in your body and intend to gain muscle quick, you have to increase the intensity of your workout. Whether you accomplish this by increasing the number of reps you do or the weight you lift, or both, it is the only way you are going to build the body of your dreams. If you change nothing else the next time you hit the gym, increase the intensity of your workout and you will see massive changes. You can’t just go through the motions of working out, you have to actually make your muscle work to build muscle fast.

2. Eat Right

If you want to gain lean muscle mass, you have to increase your protein intake each day, which means eating some form of protein at every meal. The best protein sources you can find are egg whites, chicken breasts and fish. Of these, fish is the healthiest you can eat because it is high in Omega 3 fatty acids. These help you gain muscle and lose fat. Fish is also very low in bad fats and contains no bad carbohydrates. For the best results from your diet, you need to get protein at every meal.

3. Get Plenty Of Rest

It is of utmost importance that you get enough sleep at night while trying to build muscle, but it is equally important that you rest between workouts. Too many times people start working out and they think that they have to workout every single day, so they over work their muscles and end up reversing their muscle building efforts. This constant muscle fatigue will never get you great muscle gains unless you take some time to rest between workouts. The old idiom of “No Pain, No Gain,” is out, it’s time to rest more if you want to gain muscle fast.

If you make these simple changes in your workout plans, you will see huge changes in the results your muscle building efforts. They may be little changes, but they can make the difference in whether or not you build muscle quick.

Tips to Effectively Increase Your Musle Mass

By PHT Support

Almost everybody wants to have some muscles with the exception of sumo wrestlers. If you want to achieve muscles the fastest way, then you need to strictly follow a very effective muscle building routine and remain faithful to it. Set your goals and really push yourself in realizing them.

In addition to the usual fitness equipment, there are some products that have surfaced that claim to help you increase your muscle mass in less time. But you need to be wary with these products if you so decide to include them in your routine. Bear in mind that not all you hear and see are true, especially if they promise quick results.

You have heard of protein bars and shakes that are supposedly designed to help you gain muscle mass, right? Well, some of them do deliver expected results. Some of them do not. The same can be said on other fitness products. When you want to try out any product to get you the muscles you desire, it is prudent that you seek expert opinion first.

But still, nothing compares to building muscles the old fashioned way.You have to carry some weights, stick to your exercise routines, and really watch what you eat. You might be in some pain but as what the old saying says, no pain, no gain.

In terms of diet, you can increase you muscle mass by eliminating saturated fats from your diet. Instead, increase your intake of essential fats since they are really good for your body. Also, avoid eating too much fatty foods such as French fries, burgers, and hotdogs.

Taking in vitamins and essential minerals is a sure way to increase your muscle mass is to partake essential vitamins and minerals. This will give your body an extra boost once you go out and do your routines. Rest is also an essential ingredient inn muscle building. Letting your muscles get enough rest is very beneficial. Overworking your muscles, contrary to popular belief, hinders the growth of your muscle tissues. Allowing them to rest makes them more prone to fatigue It would be best if you take at least six hours of sleep every day.

Building your body up requires hard work. There is neither a magic product nor a quick fix that can help you achieve the kind of body you want. You have to work hard for it, earn it. It might take some time, but with true effort, you’ll see that the results are all worth it.

Want to know how to build muscle fast? Well you’ll find some great articles and resources if you visit our site.

How To Maximize Your Weight Gain Goal

By PHT Support

It can sometimes be difficult to bulk up your body. However, if you can watch what you eat and stick to a sound a proven bulking up plan, then it is definitely an achievable goal. Getting instant results with magic pill solutions will not happen. Yes there are pills or supplements to aid in your quest to bulk up, but these are secondary compared to the basic actions of eating correctly and working out properly.

The most important element you need to focus on if you are to be able to bulk up successfully is to eat excessive calories (more than what your body needs to for weight maintenance). But of course, we are not talking about just any kind of food here.

We are talking about healthy, whole meal foods like chicken, beef, eggs and vegetables. And they should be prepared by steaming or grilling them. Deep-frying these foods will not do you any good in the long-run. It can even ruin your bulk up plan.

Why does this excessive calories method work? Well it is simply due to the reason that your muscles require a lot of energy to maintain. A pound of muscle takes up more energy than a pound of fats. But the muscles take up much less space than fats. And muscles are what give you that sculpted look. To be more specific, the kind of foods what are consuming should have a high ratio of protein. This is because muscles feed on protein and requires it to grow.

Of course, on the other side of the equation, working out at the gym (or pumping your body to grow muscles is an equally important factor. If you were to merely consume loads of calories but don’t utilize it by working out, then these extra calories will just convert into fats. We want a bulkier muscular body, not a tub of fat goo body.

These are just a few quick tips and tricks you can employ immediately to zero in on the most important factors when it comes to successful weight gain (muscle weight). If you do nothing but follow the above 2 points, then you will be well ahead of the curve among the many people who try to gain weight.

Pedometers Can Help Keep Kids Healthy

By PHT Support

by Henry Calhoun

It has been shown in many different studies that wearing a pedometer can help adults to increase their daily physical activity. What has also been found out is that they can do the same for kids. Pedometers work for both adults and kids because they serve as a type of encouragement booster and as an aid to keep both adults and kids motivated to stay active.

Daily exercise is essential for a healthy body with 10,000 steps, which is about 5 miles, being the recommended distance to walk and when this information became common knowledge, adults from all walks began walking with their pedometers attached to their waist. The bonus is for those trying to lose extra pounds the walking boosted their results and those who were not did the walking for general health.

It is also common knowledge that many kids in this country are overweight or obese. This has been directly linked to the fact that kids are spending more time indoors playing video games, watching TV or using the computer. Kids these days simply do not play outside as much as kids of years past. This inactivity is leading to kids who are gaining too much weight too fast and growing into overweight adults. The solution to the problem is getting kids to be more active. That is not always easy, though. This is where pedometers come in.

The theory is that since pedometers help adults that they could also help kids, because basically people are the same regardless of their age and like to see results for their actions. A pedometer helps since it shows what you have accomplished while being active. The instant read out will let you know just how many steps have been taken up to that point of the day and if you are trying to reach a certain number of steps daily, then this will help you to reach your goal.

Getting kids to use a pedometer is not too difficult. Parents can simply make it a type of game. They can tell them what the pedometer does and how it works. They can then tell them that their goal is to reach a certain number of steps every day. If they reach their goal then they get a reward. This can work a lot like a potty training system where the parent charts their success and rewards them for it. Kids will think it is fun and they will work very hard to reach their daily goal.

The best part of this is setting a healthy way of living, or at least part, by keeping them more active by getting them to want to do activities outdoors instead of indoors. If it is made fun and they are encouraged it will seem like fun and thy will less likely resist. The pedometer can be a very useful tool in achieving this.

About the Author:

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Natural Remedies For High Blood Pressure

By PHT Support

by Steve Brodie

Around one in three adults in western industrialised nations will suffer from high blood pressure, a further third of these will be unaware of their condition because high blood pressure is a silent and deadly disease.

Blood pressure at a normalised rate will look something like 120(systolic)/80(diastolic)mmHg. Pre-hypertension is between 120-139/80-89 and stage one and two hypertension range between 140-160/90-100 or higher. Nosebleeds, headaches and dizziness are some of the symptoms of high blood pressure, though symptoms are rare in the early stages.

There is no identifiable cause of high blood pressure (unless it is secondary hypertension which is directly related to another illness) rather it is a combination of lifestyle factors which lead to the disease. Lifestyles that are sedentary, involve high intake of salt and sugar, smoking and alcohol consumption will all carry risk of hypertension as will excess weigh, increased age and a family history of the disorder.

There are many natural remedies and lifestyle changes which can help to get your blood pressure lower naturally. Most doctors will recommend medications for controlling hypertension and in severe cases this is very necessary, but try and work with your doctor to find natural solutions to hypertension ” in any case leaving high blood pressure untreated can lead to kidney disease, stroke and heart attack.

Some natural remedies worth looking into include coenzyme Q10, which has seen promising results in studies for lowering blood pressure. Garlic is one of natures wonder plants, and as a natural blood thinner helps in lowering blood pressure ” including it in your diet is a great health benefit even without hypertension, though if you are taking garlic supplements then consult your doctor to see how it will react with any other medication you are one.

Hawthorn is also great for high blood pressure. Hawthorn extract has seen marked reductions in studies of hypertensive patients without any herb-drug reactions.

Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium have all shown to have results in helping to lower high blood pressure. Potassium helps counter the effects of salt on the kidneys and helps to lower blood pressure there. There are many other herbal and natural remedies out there, so try all your options before going on life-time medication.

Stress is also a significant factor in high blood pressure, so learning to de-stress your life is essential to controlling the disorder. The fight against hypertension can also be helped by using your mind ” techniques such as autogenic training and biofeedback have shown postivie impacts on high blood pressure. Both techniques are about learning to control otherwise involuntary functions like breathing, temperature, heart rate and of course blood pressure. These techniques are positive life practices, though they do require a lot of effort.

Low impact exercise evens out blood flow and will lower your resting heart rate and blood pressure, so taking a daily walk is another good treatment. High intensity exercise is not recommended for hypertensive patients, though any new exercise program should be run past your doctor first to be on the safe side.

Ayurvedic, Chinese and other alternative medicical practices also have treatments for high blood pressure. Constitutional types are used to treat patients in Ayurvedic medicine, so each remedy will differ for each patient . Chinese medicine sees a lack of vital energy or Qi as being realted to high blood pressure and emotional issues such as depression and anger linked to hypertension. Chinese medicine practitioners will generally combine acupuncture with herbal treatments.

It is very important to remember that natural remedies are available and can work quickly to lower blood pressure. Finding ways to deal with high blood pressure naturally is essential if you are a hypertension sufferer and even if you think you may be at risk.

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