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Tag: Stay Fit

Are Spin Bikes Really Effective for Toning Body..

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Bicycling can be beneficial when adding it to your normal workout routine. However stationary bikes can only tone up your body. If you want both the benefit of a cardio workout and the ability to tone muscles then you should consider looking into Spin Bikes.

Some people have a misconception when it comes to biking. Many believe that biking solely focuses on endurance, that however is not the case. Recumbent and spin bikes work to both increase endurance and build lower and core muscles simultaneously, making it the perfect pick for people who want to double up on their workouts.

What are spin bikes?

Spinning bikes are built different than traditional stationary bikes. Instead of sitting upright, its build is slightly angled, putting your body in a position that has to use its muscles to support you while cycling.

Other stationary bikes position your body to sit upright, hence leading to less effectiveness on toning muscles. The slightly bent angle will help tighten your core, leading to an increased workout for your core muscles including your abdominal muscles.

Spin bikes will usually be less comfortable than stationary bikes because their main focus isn’t to let you leisurely stroll along, it’s to build muscle while also focusing on endurance training.

Why should I choose a spin bike?

Traditionally stationary/recumbent bikes don’t tone your body and can lead to lower back pain. The support built into normal bikes don’t give you the best form when cycling. If you’re looking for a great cardio workout that maximizes its effectiveness while also fitting in the ability to tone your core muscles, then a spin bike is going to be a good fit for your individual needs.

Spin bikes will help you tone a handful of different muscle groups. Because of the angle of the seating, spin bikes will help you tone your core, upper and lower back, and all of your leg muscles. Pumping up the resistance on your bike can also lead to more muscle gain in your lower body, providing you with maximization of both lower and upper body strengthening.

Spinning bikes also give high impact training. When you’re focused on pedaling at faster rates you’re going to find that your abdomen will automatically contract and expand. Hence making it perfect for toning your abs.

Another extra feature that individuals tend to overlook is that you can use spin bikes to workout your upper body as well. You can do this by switching the position of your arms and practice with using one hand at a time.

What features should I expect?

Most spinning bikes are going to have a few core features different from traditional bikes or stationary bikes. Spin bikes tend to offer higher resistance than most other bikes, making it more ideal for muscle training. They will also usually have more extensive and physically challenging training programs, however they still offer beginner options.

The resistance will usually end up ranging from minimal to expert, giving you many options to either tone down or drive your workout to be even more intense. Extra features can be included in some spinning bikes, however these are not necessary. The main features you want on your spin bike is a good pedaling system, right size for your body (as some spin bikes do not support shorter or taller people), and a decent range in customization (personal profile input, program settings, etc).

As mentioned above, other bikes tend to force you to sit upright and will allow you to more leisurely workout. Spin bikes however do not give you the opportunity to slack and sit back, instead they will help force you to keep your own body supported.

Most of the good spin bikes fall under $500. You need not to consider any high-end bikes, provided if you are not planning for intense cycling and training for cycling leagues.

In conclusion

Spin bikes may slightly start to sound scary, as these features tend to seem like they are more suited for experts, that is not the case. These bikes are great for experts and beginners as well.

The extra benefit of muscle toning will also seem to frighten individuals away. You should not let the seemingly “lack of support” scare you. Because of how these bikes are built you will automatically be strengthening your core muscles, thus leading your body to become stronger and lead to more muscle growth. The extra force will also help you have better posture, more stability, and help balance.

 

This post is written by Paul Schoff from FitnessAbout.com. He is a vegan bodybuilder and a passionate blogger. He believes in holistic development and cuts the BS promoted my media about health.

Music For Well-Being: 11 Positive Effects Of Music On Health

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Music for me is something that soothes my soul, it sets me free, lifts up my mood and helps me unwind in the most relaxing manner.

Music doesn’t provide just entertainment, but also has lots of positive effects on our health. I came across this wonderful article on Music for Well Being: 11 Positive Effects of Music on Health.

Read the full article here

How To Recover From Your Workout At Home

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

It’s all too easy to go a little too hard when you’re working out because when that adrenaline is rushing around your body, you tend to push yourself further than you intended, and then you’re left sore and aching, unable to workout or do anything of use for a few days. Luckily, there are ways that you can recover faster than normal so that you can get yourself back in the gym for another workout.

Simple Steps To Get Glowing Skin From Head To Toe

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Do you often wish your skin was more glowing? Sometimes it can seem like all the products and makeup in the world can’t help you to get that fresh, luminous look that you crave. The key to glowing skin doesn’t come from a miracle product – it’s the work of living a healthy lifestyle and making smart choices about your health. Discover the secrets behind glowing skin with these top tips.

Image: Pexels

Drink more water

So many people fail to drink their recommended daily water intake. It’s easy to do, especially if you’re always rushing around. However, water is one of the best things you can do to boost the appearance of your skin. Water helps keep your skin plumped and hydrated, while other benefits of drinking water include reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles and helping your body flush out toxins that can cause spots and blemishes.

Exfoliate

Regular exfoliation can make a huge difference to your skin’s appearance. A good buff will help eliminate dead skin cells, work cleansing products deep into your skin as well as help it to absorb moisturizer better. Using exfoliating treatments and buffing sponges is one of the recommendations from www.cellulite.com to help improve the appearance of cellulite. If you’ve got sensitive skin, avoid harsh exfoliators that could leave your skin red and irritated.

Ease up on the caffeine

While you might need caffeine to function, your coffee habit could be doing more damage to your skin than you realize. Caffeine can have an affect your blood vessels, stopping vital nutrients that help it to produce collagen and therefore prevent aging. See if you can switch to herbal teas instead of your regular coffee to see if it can leave your skin glowing and healthy.

Moisturize

Many women forget to moisturize while others will focus on moisturizing their face and not their body. Moisturizing is important to help your skin lock in moisture and give it a smooth and even appearance. You don’t have to buy an expensive moisturizer to feel the benefits, as even the action of moisturizing helps to promote blood flow or ease aching muscles. If you’re really short on time, try a moisturizing spray or in-shower product that’s perfect for keeping your skin soft and smooth when you’re on the go.

Exercise regularly

Weight gain can affect the appearance of your skin, and an unhealthy diet could be causing your face to appear red and greasy. Taking steps to look after your health through a good diet and exercise will do wonders for your skin, as well as boost your mood and energy levels. Finding time to exercise isn’t always easy, but you could combine exercise and TV so that you can exercise at home without having to take the time to go to the gym. Regular exercise boosts your skin’s blood flow, helping it get what it needs to look healthy.

The secret to glowing skin is all down to you. Make sure you give your skincare routine the attention it deserves and enjoy youthful, luminous skin that makes you happy with what you see in the mirror.

 

 

 

Yoga For Common Ailments

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Yoga, it is a very ancient practice, but it’s something that everybody does now. It’s very trendy, of course, and it’s a great way to get you more flexible. But also, the thing about yoga is that people don’t talk about the more practical uses for it, it is very good for a lot of ailments people may have. So, here are a few common ailments, and the best yoga pose you can try for it.

Headaches

Wikimedia

This is a common problem, and while most of us reach for the painkillers, instead you may want to go for one of the basic yoga moves, the downward facing dog. The way you do this is to come onto the floor and put your knees above your hips, your hands a little bit further forward than your shoulders. Breathe in, and exhale, while you do this, lift your knees up from the floor and lengthen your tailbone. Exhale and push your thighs back, stretch your heels down towards the floor. Strengthen your underarms and press your index fingers to the floor and lift.

Anxiety

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Yet another thing people will suffer from a lot in the morning world, there’s been a reported rise in anxiety due to modern living, so one of the best poses is to combat this is the bridge. And not only are there benefits for anxiety in relation to this pose, but it also causes a lot of positives generally. The way to do this is to lie on the floor, and then bend your knees and put your feet straight on the floor, with your heels as close to the sitting bones as you can. Upon exhalation push your feet and arms into the floor and push your tailbone up, and lift your butt off the floor. Make sure that your thighs and your inner feet are parallel to each other. Keep your knees over the heels and lengthen the tailbone, but be sure to do this slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae, and the same applies to when you lower your body, go from the top of your vertebrae all the way down the spine.

Bad Back

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A staggering amount of people complain of a bad back and one of them is very likely to be yourself. One of the best poses for this is the extended side angle pose, and this is quite a skilled pose for beginners, so it’s important that to practice these properly, that you do your research and make sure you’re doing everything right. But the best way is to get to a yoga fitness class; many classes cater for people of various skills, from beginning to advance level yoga fitness classes, so you don’t have to feel out of your depth. This is quite a complicated pose, so if you feel you have to try it at home, look at this video to get it right.

Yoga is not just a great way to get fit, it’s a wonderful cleansing practice if you do this in conjunction with the right diet, and it is an excellent way to add fitness into your life, but also gives you a sense of meaning. Yoga is one of those great low impact exercises, but it really builds up strength and balance, two things essential for life.

 

 

TV or Exercise? Why Not Do Both?

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Image Source

You’re sat on the sofa after a hard day’s work and you know you should be out there jogging or using up your gym membership. But what about all those TV shows you need to catch up on? Many of us will often choose the box over exercise. But why can’t we do both? There are many forms of exercise that can be done in a living room in front of the TV. Here are just a few ways that we could all be getting our fix of physical activity whilst getting up to speed on the latest series.

Buy exercise equipment for your living room

Many types of exercise equipment can be used in a living room. Dumbbells, resistance bands and medicine balls take up hardly any space at all both to store and to use. There are then those more bulky exercise machines such as treadmills and exercise bikes. Exercise bikes in particular allow you to sit down as if you were watching TV and take up very little space (some can even be folded away). Read exercise bike reviews online to find the best one for your living space. You could aim to keep on a certain speed for the entirety of a show or vary it up with each ad break.

Use the couch as an exercise tool

Your sofa can be used to perform many exercises. Tricep dips can allow you to still watch the screen. You could also try elevated press ups with your feet on the sofa and your hands on the floor whilst facing towards the screen.

Do squats and lunges 

Squats and lunges are great for toning up your legs and butt and require only a small space of floor. You can easily do these exercises whilst watching the TV. You could also do squats and lungs with equipment such as dumbbells or a medicine ball, allowing you to work on your upper body strength simultaneously.

Consider static exercises

Some static exercises can be done whilst watching TV. The plank is a great core workout for improving your abs that requires you to lift up onto your feet and elbows – you can do this whilst staring ahead at your favourite show. You can also switch this up and do the superman exercise which involves laying on your stomach and lifting your lower body and chest off the floor.

Use commercial breaks for HIIT training

If you find exercise too distracting whilst you watch TV, why not make use of those annoying ad breaks? These can be the perfect time to squeeze in some high intensity interval training. Exercises could include press ups, sit-ups, weight exercises, squats, lunges – whatever you can think of. Make sure that it’s hard to get the most benefit out of this form of exercise. You can then use the time in which the show is on to recuperate with a slower form of exercise that doesn’t take away your concentration.

 

Work A High-Stress Career? Look After Yourself First

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Pexels

Working a high-stress career is simply a must for many people trying to achieve their goals and pursue the life they want. There are almost more high-stress careers than there are low-stress, and so it’s important to tailor yourself to the job market so you can work the roles you truly want. For example, a great chef will only become great if they’re willing to suffer the long hours and hardships of the kitchen. A construction worker will need to become adapted to the rugged physicality of the job, as well as mitigating the overstimulation of the nearby machinery.

High-stress jobs are simply a factor of the working world, as they always have been dating back to antiquity. For these reasons, it’s important to take care of yourself to keep resilient and active in the direction you most want to pursue. We’d like to offer you some health tips for achieving this.

Medical

You must make sure you are well protected during your workplace activities. It shouldn’t take a H+S officer to give you the motivation to read through the safety policy at your firm. Knowing this could potentially give you life-saving information. At the very least, making sure you are well protected regarding the role you play can help.

If you’re on your feet for multiple hours a day, wearing soft crocs or supportive shoes can help your feet health and your alertness over the course of the day. Making sure you mitigate the effects of workplace trauma can help too, for example, tinnitus treatment can help you mitigate the effects of noisy environments, or become active to work again after an injury. Making sure your skin is protected in toxic environments and constantly assessing your breathing environment will give you and even more complete view of safety in the workplace.

Unwind

Giving yourself time to unwind from a stressful day will help you loosen some of the tightness you feel after a hard working period. It’s important that you give yourself this time, where you allow yourself to think about nothing in particular. For some people, this involves resting in front of the television, or consuming video games as a hobby. While these can be beneficial, and it’s more than your right to achieve this, there are better hobbies to help you.

Meditating can help you become more focused in your daily life, and actually de-emphasises the part of your brain responsible for stress. A simply crafting hobby can help you meditate physically, and creative expression is often the best way to de-stress. Reading a great book can help distract you in a completely different world, coming back to your life with added rejuvenation. These tips can help you overcome the difficulty of your daily schedule, and approach it with added caution and ability.

With these tips, your high-stress career will come second to your health, just the way it should be.

 

 

 

Eat Yourself Happy: Foods Scientifically Proven To Beat The Winter Blues

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Image by Max Pixel

In case you haven’t noticed, the summer is well and truly gone and with the turning of the leaves and the graying of the skies, something more insidious is creeping in with the longer nights. Many of us find ourselves unaccountably experiencing low mood, depression, lethargy and in some cases increased irritability. As fall sets in and eventually concedes to winter, an increasing number of us start to experience Seasonal Affective disorder (aptly abbreviated to SAD). This can not only sap our mood and make us feel depressed and lethargic (even if objectively our lives are great), but also drain our will to eat healthily and live active lifestyles. It can make us want to oversleep and cause us to crave unhealthy foods, especially starchy refined carbohydrates and sugars, resulting in weight gain which only feeds the cycle of inactivity. “Why bother?” we ask ourselves, before grabbing a candy bar and settling down on the sofa.

If the coming of the fall season makes you want to wrap up in a duvet, grab a bag of potato chips and hibernate then you desperately need a pick me up.

Fortunately, with a little know how, you can chomp the blues away while improving your overall health. But first…

Exercise… It’s non-negotiable

On a dark, cold and drizzly morning, going to the gym or out for a jog is probably the last thing you feel like doing which is exactly why it’s the first thing you should do. The benefits of exercising first thing in the morning are many and various. It can raise your energy levels and mood while leaving you secure in the knowledge that the rest of the day is yours to do as you wish. It can also give your brain a much-needed endorphin boost, raising your mood and also boosting your metabolism.

Even a 20 minute jog is a great way to start the day. If that sounds like a nightmare, give yourself a reason to enjoy your jog. Take your phone and listen to some music, a podcast or an audiobook as you jog. Check out this flipbelt review for an alternative to carrying your phone in your pocket. The last thing you want is to start your day with a dropped and broken phone.

Image by Pixabay

Mood boosting foods

After starting the day with a brisk workout, you’ve earned a delicious breakfast. Now’s the time to capitalize on this natural mood booster and load up on these nutritious mood boosting foods:

  • Avocado- Avocados are full of healthy fats to stabilize your appetite and reduce cravings but they’re also great for balancing your hormones and keeping your serotonin levels
  • Nuts- A great post-workout food, nuts are full of healthy fats, fiber, antioxidants and protein as well as being full of serotonin.
  • Strawberries- They’re tasty, they’re versatile and they’re rich in vitamins and nutrients to facilitate stable brain chemistry.
  • Sesame seeds- Great for sprinkling and snacking, sesame seeds are rich in the amino acid tyrosine which naturally increases the brain’s production of dopamine naturally boosting your mood while also helping your body to assimilate their protein.

 

 

Maximize Each Workout With These Top Tips

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

https://www.pexels.com/photo/fitness-girl-hands-lifestyle-374694/

Working out can be a lot of fun when you get it right. But ensuring that a workout is right for you doesn’t always have to involve technicalities or trends. Instead, you need to ensure that any efforts you make to improve your fitness, get healthier, and generally push yourself when it comes to exercise, are maximized. And although there are some set ways that you can do this, you have to be able to work out how you can make tweaks to your own workout plans to make them more effective. So let’s take a look at some of the things that can help you to do that.

Get Some Sleep

Never underestimate the power of sleep. It’s so easy to let yourself back into unhealthy habits, and not prioritizing your sleep is definitely one of those. Sleep is so essential to everyday life, but also to your workouts. When we sleep, our bodies heal and repair. So if you want to make sure that your body is able to handle your workouts as best as possible, you need to be thinking about getting as much high-quality sleep as possible. And eight hours as a minimum.

Warm Up

When you’re excited to get your workout in, or desperate to fit in what you can in the time you have, it’s tempting to rush through things. But in reality, you need to take it slow if you want your workout to be as effective as possible. And a huge portion of that is going to be down to your warm up. Because when you warm up properly, you can not only ensure that your workout is going to be more effective, but you can get your body ready to perform at its best.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/fitness-girl-person-relaxation-374633/

Stay Hydrated

On the flip side of ensuring that your workouts are as maximized as possible, if them being a bit more of a disaster. And injuries are definitely a huge part of that. However, when you’re able to stay hydrated during your workout, and start off hydrated to, you will be able to not only perform at your best levels, but minimize the risk of injury too.

Refuel

Next, you also need to be super smart with your nutrition. Because what you eat before, during and after your workout is essential to its success. So you need to do your research. Here, you’ll find that Element Fitness recommends what to eat after a workout, but you should also think about what to eat to fuel the workout too. Because what you eat can really influence how well your workout will be.

Stretch It Out

And finally, you’re definitely going to want to think about what you can do before, during, and after your workout to keep your body at its best. And stretching is always great for that. Not only can your body get stronger and avoid injuries, you’ll find that you can recover a lot quicker, especially with post-workout stretches. In turn, your workouts will start to become more effective.

 

 

Healthy For Life: Medical Checks You Need To Be Having as You Age

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

It is inevitable that we are all going to age. But how well we age will be dependant on a number of things. Some things in our life we have inherited and may or may happen as a result. Other things can happen through incidents in our life, or how we treat our body. But there are some things that can occur as we get older than can be dealt with pretty quickly. We just need to be getting them checked in time. So has never been more important to have regular doctor’s appointments as we age. Throughout our life we should aim for at least a yearly physical unless we have any conditions that need to be seen to. But what are some checks we should be having as we get older? Here are a few suggestions. If you have yet to have one of these and are reaching a certain point in your life, then it might be time to schedule an appointment. I hope this helps!

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Hearing Test

Hearing tests should be done from a young age. But unlike eyesight, it doesn’t need to be done too often. Once every five years or so should suffice, as long as you aren’t noticing any problems in the meantime, of course. But as we get older, our hearing can deteriorate quite quickly. So more often than not is recommended for hearing tests. But don’t worry, if there are any issues, it can be easily dealt with. Just take a look at a site like hearingaidbuyertoday.com, and you’ll see the variety of hearing aids that are available. There are many that look like you’re not even wearing one, so you don’t have to make it obvious, if that is something that you’re worried about.

Eye Tests

Throughout our lives, our eyes should be tested around every two years. Again, this should be done sooner if you are noticing problems with the quality of your vision. The number of people, especially women, that wear glasses later in their lives is quite high. So you might want to consider having eye tests annually, rather than every two years. Having good vision can impact your health and life in general greatly, so it is worth looking into.

Stepping on the Scales

Knowing how much we weigh is important for weight maintenance. As we get older, our metabolism can slow down; we tend to be a little less active than we have been before, so weight gain can be quite likely if we’re not careful. So keep an eye on how much you weigh. Being overweight can lead to many issues later in life, but being a reasonable weight can reduce your chances quite significantly.

Cholesterol Testing

Do you know what levels of cholesterol are in your blood? It isn’t something that we tend to know. But having it checked every so often can be really important for our overall health. If you have high cholesterol, it can lead to problems with your heart, and even problems with your blood pressure. So having it checked regularly is important. This can be done with your doctor, especially if you are concerned about it or are overweight. Then you can adjust your lifestyle accordingly, to help improve the results.

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Blood Pressure

Similar to cholesterol levels, our blood pressure can have a big impact on our health, but it isn’t something that we get checked all that often. Untreated high blood pressure can be a killer, as it can lead to things like heart attacks or stroke. So don’t let it sneak up on you. You could check out symptoms at webmd.com if you’re unsure. Get your blood pressure checked regularly and then you can make some changes, as well as take prescribed medication, to help with it.

Mammogram

For women over a certain age, and some men, a mammogram regularly is a great way to detect something like breast cancer before it happens. As well as an annual check, you should look for changes in your body, especially your breasts, and have any changes checked. Yes, it isn’t ideal and can be uncomfortable. But staying on top of it all will help you to deal with anything that might arise, prolonging your health and your life.

Checking Shots

Things like the flu vaccine are available for many of us, especially when the winter months roll around. So if you think you would like one or want to know about it, then speak to your doctor. It can be a lifesaver in winter months when the flu is doing the rounds!

 

 

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