Health and Fitness Articles

Archive for the ‘Cardio’ Category

Struggling to find time to make it to your neighborhood fitness center? Problem is you still need to trim your midsection. Here’s an alternative. Lose that belly fat with home cardio workouts. As you’ll see, you really can firm up those sagging stomach muscles and lose the pounds needed to leave you with a body you can be proud of.

It’s important to realize that all the crunches and sits ups in the world can’t really do much for that bulging waistline though. Still I’m not suggesting you stop doing them. Just do them with the purpose of having showy abs to show off once you do whittle down your middle.

But the real trick, which many either don’t know or ignore, is that you need a total body workout like you get with aerobics to trim any kangaroo pouch stubbornly clinging to your midsection. The fat loss results naturally from the increased metabolism that melts away calories which is something spot reduction can’t do.

For example rope jumping is a calorie burning home cardio workout that’s great for that.

Yet I know some prefer fancy se equipment for their calorie burn. And for you there are plenty of choices.

Topping the wish list of many would be such work out equipment like elliptical machines, treadmills, or exercise bike. Yet don’t let the price new calories burners like these deter you. If you watch Craig’s list or garage sales even these can be had for pennies on the dollar.

Now if your joints are a concern go with the stationary bike. It’s a low impact workout although the trade off is you won’t be burning as many calories as you might otherwise.

Then too the elliptical may be superior when it comes to burning calories for weight loss.

Or if you prefer, how about a rowing machine? This piece of workout gear can get your heart pumping at an elevated level in no time. And sweating up a storm in 10 minutes or less. Both highly desirable for those looking to slim down.

Remember too that the incline is your friend on your treadmill. It will make you work harder and so burn more calories in the same amount of time. Helping you trim down that much faster.

And if you have a Stairmaster to burn the calories then do not “cheat” yourself by using the handrails.

The knock on workout equipment is for some it’s rather boring. And it can be. I won’t lie. But you can burn off a lot of fat with a 10 minute session of jumping rope. That’s the equivalent of running a mile and burns calories even faster. Just be sure you have the right impact absorbing foot wear and try to avoid jumping on concrete if at all possible.

Another way to combat boredom is interval training. Of course that requires more equipment to pull off. But it is another option.

The key with any workout program is committing to your routine. Ideally you want your cardio workout to be 30 minutes or longer. And you want to be fully engaged four maybe five times a week. But the pay off will be a trimmer waist and a leaner profile. Which is the goal here anyway, isn’t it?

About the Author: In addition to the ideas just revealed, Jalinn M Hardy shares more about exercises to lose weight quickly at MeltOffTheInches.com. She contributes articles covering a range of topics including one that explains exactly how does exercise affect diabetes.

You may be putting off that over 40 exercise program because you are nervous. You worry that you could get hurt doing aerobics or jogging. Maybe you have been to the gym, but were intimidated by all of the other people who were in far better shape than you. Perhaps you find strenuous activity too uncomfortable. If you let these things intimidate you, you are risking your health and life. However, there are easier steps you can take that will get you started on the path to fitness.

Going for a walk is easy and is a fantastic workout. Ideally, this type of exercise should elevate your heartbeat for at least 30 minutes. Therefore, it does not matter how far or how fast you walk, just walk for 30 minutes. After a week, try to walk a little further in the same amount of time. As you do, you will gain strength and speed. It will not be long until you are ready for a light jog.

A simple bike ride is an excellent alternative to walking. Bicycling is lower impact and something you can do with a group, to stay motivated. You do not need an expensive bike, just one that feels comfortable. Stationary bikes are just as effective, but you may prefer the changing scenery of a bicycle. Also, many people are having success with recumbent cross training machines which is a stationary cycling style machine that exercises your total body.

You should always start your over 40 exercise routine at your comfort level. If you are not ready for a run or a bike ride, start with simpler exercises. This will increase your chances of success and help you prevent injury. Also, easy exercises help you prepare your body for more intense activity.

You can continue your over 40 exercise program even if you are sitting at a desk or on a couch. Simple leg lifts can help build your leg muscles and prepare you for more activity. You can add ankle weights to increase resistance and tone muscle. Using small two to five pound weights while performing light arm curls will strengthen your biceps. Each of these activities should adequately prepare your body for a brisk walk or light aerobics.

You should check with your local pool to see if they offer water aerobics or other classes. Water aerobics are easier on the joints and can be a great way to develop into a more intense exercise program. The resistance of water makes even a simple leg lift twice as effective. Your pool may also offer equipment, such as foam dumbbells and aqua belts, to increase the water resistance.

Pedometers can help you better understand your current level of activity and improve. Once you have worn a pedometer for a week, you will know when you are the most sedentary. If you have little or no activity at work, use that as an opportunity for improvement. Try to take the stairs for at least one flight, park further away from the building, and take a walk over your lunch break.

You should not be intimidated. Walking, biking, or simple sitting exercises are very easy ways to begin an over 40 exercise program at your pace. You should never let worry keep you from a longer, healthier life.

If you constantly have bouts of irrational fear and terror, heart palpitations, dizziness or a sense they are impending, then you might be suffering from a panic disorder. There are already a number of treatments for people who are experiencing frequent panic attacks but choosing the best one can be difficult, especially if you don’t understand the disorder you are battling with.

The presence of panic attacks may be one important indicator that you are already suffering from panic disorder. Usually, this situation is characterized by dizziness and fast heartbeat coincided by intense fear, among other indicators. Also, it may attack repeatedly, usually at the most unexpected time. In fact, it also wrongly activates a body’s fight or flight response system. A person experiencing panic disorder would very likely avoid believed circumstances where attacks may take place.

Almost 3 million people are already suffering from panic attacks once in their lifetime, and this data is for the US alone. Older people and children alike can be affected by this disorder, although the most common affected ones are young adults. Also, women are more likely to be suffering from anxiety attacks panic attacks, which does not choose any race.

Initial cases of panic attack happens randomly, where it can happen at any our and any day, usually without warning, lasting from several minutes even until several hours. Such attacks can be induced by prior stressful experiences like death or childbirth. Additional known causes of these are stimulants and medicines consumed.

Facts on panic disorder: One of the most common indicators of panic disorder is the recurrence of panic attacks. Panic disorder is also described as the fear and anticipatory anxiety, which if left untreated, could affect seriously one’s life. A person may stop driving a car or riding an elevator whenever that person experiences attacks on those instances. Everyday activity then can also be disrupted. From work to intimate relationships, this disorder truly is a bad thing to have.

All about panic disorder: One of the most common indicators of panic disorder is the recurrence of panic attacks. Panic disorder is also described as the fear and anticipatory anxiety, which if left untreated, could affect seriously one’s life. A person may stop driving a car or riding an elevator whenever that person experiences attacks on those instances. Everyday activity can also be disrupted. From work to intimate relationships, this disorder truly is a bad thing to have.

Even during sleep, one may experience anxiety attacks panic attacks, as long as that person experiences panic disorder. The worst case here is when the patient already fears sleep itself, due to the fear that sleeping may trigger attacks. This further complicates the matter.

On treating panic disorder: To prevent the disorder from progressing, as well as to stop panic attacks, one of the most important ways for you to do is to seek treatment for panic disorder. One of the most effective ways to treat it is cognitive behavioral therapy. In cognitive behavioral therapy, patients are made to properly understand thoughts and feelings whenever an attack comes. Also, patients are helped by therapists to first recognize signs of an attack so that responses to it can be modified. This also enables the patient to have greater control over the disease.

Ways to treat a panic disorder: Seeking treatment for panic disorder is important not only to stop panic attacks but also to prevent the disorder from progressing. Cognitive behavioral therapy is considered as the first line of defense and probably the most effective, too. In this method, patients are taught to understand the thoughts and feelings that come with attacks. Therapists help patients recognize the first signs of an attack so they can modify their responses to them. This way, patients can have greater control over their problem.

Are you suffering from a panic disorder? Learn more about your problem and take the first step to stop panic attacks today. Visit http://anxietyattackspanicattacks.com for resources on panic disorder, agoraphobia treatment, anxiety and depression and get a FREE report, “How To Break Free From A Stressful Lifestyle”.

Sometimes called a person’s fear of fear, Agoraphobia is one serious social anxiety disorder. Agoraphobia actually comes from two Greek words, one being “fear” and the other “marketplace.” Most often that not, people that are diagnosed with this kind of disease would try his or her best to avoid circumstances deemed by the patient as having low or no chance of escape. Such places that agoraphobia patients often avoid are markets, malls, airports and other places that are usually large and unfamiliar. Also, home is seen by patients as the only “safe place,” hurting their social life with others.

Agoraphobia is generally linked to generalized anxiety disorder and cases of substance abuse or stressful environments, although the main causes of the disease is still unknown. Also, the use of sleeping pills and tranquilizers can often exacerbate this disease, although one such agoraphobia treatment includes treatments in drug dependence and a specific period of abstinence. Naturally, agoraphobia patients experience regular panic attacks and many are pushed to isolate themselves, believing it would cause to stop panic attacks on them.

Common agoraphobia symptoms: When one is diagnosed with agoraphobia, not only does that person worries about panic attacks. Other symptoms include: Fear of being alone in public, Fear of crowds, Fear of restricted places such as elevators, Overdependence on other people, Helplessness feelings

Symptoms of agoraphobia: Apart from the excessive worry about having a panic attack, people who have agoraphobia manifests the following: Fear of being alone in crowded places, Fear of losing control in a public place, Fear of being in places where it might be hard to leave such as an elevator or a train, Sense of helplessness, Overdependence on others, and the fear to leave the house for long periods, Symptoms of a panic attack including: rapid heart rate, flushing, chest pain, trouble breathing, dizziness, nausea and excessive sweating

Also, patients affected by agoraphobia would usually only stay put in their respective homes. This is due to the fact that they want to anticipate circumstances of panic attacks, wherein leaving their safe zone would pose risks of such. In this case, opportunities for socialization would eventually diminish. These patients would then be a prisoner in their own “safe zones.”

Whenever you suffer from agoraphobia, most likely, you will become a prisoner right at your own home. Patients suffering from agoraphobia would rarely leave their safe zone, for it is common for them to anticipate the coming of panic attacks. Places to socialize would become fewer and fewer, trapping the patient in a vicious cycle.

What can you do about agoraphobia? It is understandable that consulting a professional would be a very difficult experience for people suffering from agoraphobia. Following are helpful steps to be done:

It is very easy to understand, given the embarrassing situation of having agoraphobia, to consult this condition smoothly to professionals. In this case, these are things that you can do: Document important events in your lifetime that may have induced a lot of stress, Be keen about the presence of its symptoms, Do not forget to properly document diagnosis of mental and physical health conditions, When having an appointment, do not bother asking questions, Also, when in an appointment, it helps to request accompaniment from trusted family members, for valuable information and moral support.

Learn more about your condition and start your agoraphobia treatment. Visit http://anxietyattackspanicattacks.com for more information about panic disorder, anxiety and depression and also and grab a report, “How to Break Free from a Stressful Lifestyle” for FREE…

I personally can’t understand why people dont keep track of their own heart rate. Do they know its very important and so I had to find out why not? I did a short survey for myself and walked up and ask 10 people off the street do they keep track of their heart rate? Atleast 8 out of 10 people responded with the answer no. I also asked them why not and some responses were “I really don’t know”; “Just dont think about it”; “I do when I have a doctor’s appointment”. One guy told me, “I didn’t know I had one”, but he was joking and I told him, “I already know the answer to that question”. The true fact is people just don’t worry about their heart rate.

By you reading this write-up today now ask yourself, “Do I keep track of my heart rate”? If not you can start right now. Get yourself a monitor or you can do it yourself. Much has been made of reaching a particular heart rate especially during execises, a rate that avoids too much stress on the heart and yet provides the desired result. Even doctors dont play around when you visit their office. The first thing they do is check your heart rate before they see you.

Cardiologists which is known as Heart Specialists often suggest that a desirable exercise heart rate is 220 minus your age times 75%. It can definately be difficult to count your pulse but you can check it by counting the pulse in your wrist for 15 seconds and then multiplying by 4.

You may wish to count your resting pulse, perhaps in bed in the morning before you get up. By checking this pulse and that’s if you don’t have a heart problem and aren’t taking a medication is a resting heart rate of about 60 beats per minute. An individual who isn’t fit will typically have a resting heart rate of 75 or so.

There are no good medical fact to justify particular target heart rates. You may wish to check your pulse rate a few times just to get a feel for what is happening. You should really check your heart rate more offen just to make sure your numbers are basically close to being the same.

In conclusion, if you’re exercising and hopefully it’s not all out because if you can’t talk to a companion while you’re exercising, you’re working your heart rate too hard.

We all want to know, what is the best exercise for burning fat low or high intensity cardio?? Okay so the answer is both. But which one is better than the other for burning fat?

Your body stores excess complex carbohydrates as energy (referred to as glycogen) in the muscles and liver. This is what Scientists first believed that the body burns during high intensity cardio. While on the other hand they believed that the low intensity cardio would strictly burn fat cells.

This is not necessarily true as we have many obese people that are working out regularly by doing low intensity cardio like walking in the hopes that they are burning fat calories. It doesn?t quite work that easily.

It is true that the human body burns more fat during low intensity cardio like swimming and walking; and that high intensity cardio burns a lot of calories. But you also are burning some fat calories as well during the higher intensity work outs.

As if that wasn?t great enough, when you continually make high intensity cardio a part of your workout routine, you can eat more complex carbohydrates without worrying about them being stored as fat. With a routine of cardio exercise of both high and low intensity your body becomes like a well oiled machine, efficiently burning fat and glycogen and converting new foods you eat into more energy (glycogen) for later burning. The more energy you burn, the more you replenish for future burning.

What some people who refrain from doing high intensity cardio don?t realize is that high intensity cardio has a lingering effect also. So not only does it burn the energy stores and fat stores at the time of the workout but it continues to burn through them even hours after your workout. Many exercise specialists recommend eating complex carbs right after exercise to replenish your stores.

To reiterate, the body burns more and more calories after you have completed a high intensity cardio workout but a low intensity one will not have the same impact.

So since both low and high intensity cardio is good for you why not mix it up with some interval training like a walk/jog/run workout. Start out with simply walking, until you are able to work in short spurts of jogging or sprinting to get your heart rate higher, then bring it back down by walking at a normal pace again. Repeat it and extend your periods of high intensity cardio when you can. Finish up with a slow walk to bring your heartbeat back down to normal. Your body will still be burning calories from the spurts of high intensity cardio you just did.

Increased energy is one of the best benefits of cardio exercise. Starting your day with a bit of a cardio workout will energize you and get you off on the right foot for the day. You will have more energy throughout the day and it also makes you want to eat healthier too.

If you are new to exercise, take it easy and slowly work your way up to the high intensity work outs. You can easily over exert yourself if your body is not used to it. Go ahead and give it a shot, you will have tons more energy and will get your body in better shape too.