Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

What Are the Benefits of Doing Crunches?

Crunches are exercises that require you to lie on your back, tighten your abdominal muscles and lift your head and shoulders upward. When you perform them properly, they can improve the strength of your abdominals and provide a variety of other benefits. However, when performed improperly, they can trigger pain and/or injury in your lower back.

Strengthening Your Abs
 Crunches are an exercise that target your abdominal muscles. When you perform crunches and exercises such as pushups, side planks and glute bridges, you teach the muscles in this region to work in a coordinated manner. Since most athletic activities require core movements, this coordination can significantly improve your balance during organized sports or exercise, as well as in everyday life.

Additional Benefits
 Regular performance of crunches can help you tone and strengthen the muscles in your abdomen. Since you don’t need any equipment to perform them, crunches are available to you at any time, whether you’re at home, in the gym or on the road. Proper performance of crunches also makes you slow down and pay attention to your exercise technique. In addition, crunches and other core exercises provide an often-overlooked component of a full-fitness program and fit well into your existing aerobic, strength-training and flexibility routines.

Back Pain
 In addition to the muscles at the front and sides of your abdomen, crunches and situps engage muscles called hip flexors, which run from your thighs to the front of your lumbar spine in your lower back. When you repeatedly perform the motions required for a crunch or situp, or perform them with improper form, you can overwork and tighten your hip flexors and produce significant symptoms of lower-back pain. If you develop pain while performing a crunch or situp, you can use side planks, front planks, glute bridges and other core exercises called standing lifts to relieve your symptoms and make crunches unnecessary.

Modified Crunches and Considerations
While traditional crunches and situps help you tone your abdomen and stabilize your core, other exercises typically do a better job of helping you achieve this objective. They include exercise ball crunches, reverse crunches, vertical leg crunches, the captain’s chair and the bicycle maneuver, as well as abdominal hollowing, pelvic lifts and pelvic tilts. Consult a certified fitness instructor to learn how to perform these exercises properly. You can also ask your doctor or a fitness trainer for more information on the benefits of crunches and other core exercises.

This Article Courtesy Via LiveStrong.com

How Long Should You Walk to Lose Weight?

How Long Should You Walk Each Day?

Walking continuously for 30 minutes or more is best for fat-burning. At a brisk walking pace, you will cover a distance of 1.5 to 2 miles or 2.5 to 3.3 kilometers in 30 minutes.

Walk most days of the week for at least 30 minutes to burn an extra 1000 to 3000 calories per week and to improve your metabolism each day.

  • A walking workout of 30 to 60 minutes at 50-70% of your maximum heart rate is recommended for walking for weight loss. Use the Target Heart Rate Calculator to find the right heart rate, which varies by age.
  • Start with walking at an easy pace for 5-10 minutes.
  • Stop and do some stretches and flexibility exercises.
  • Walk at a brisk pace at your target heart rate for 30-60 minutes.
  • Cool down at a slower pace for 5 minutes.
  • Finish with some gentle stretches.
  • For longer walks, walk 30-60 minutes at your target heart rate and slow a bit to complete 90 or 120 minutes at a comfortable pace.
  • Maximize your 30-minute walk

What if I Can't Walk for 30 Minutes?
  • Start with the Beginners Walking Tutorial or our daily Let's Get Walking 4-Week Beginners Course to build up your time and endurance.
  • If your schedule doesn't permit walking continuously for 30 minutes, break it up into walking twice or three times a day for shorter periods of at least 10 minutes at a brisk pace. Always warm up for 5 minutes at an easy pace no matter what duration you will be walking.
  • Mazimize Your 15-Minute Walk

How Long Should I Walk Each Week?
  • For weight loss, walk most days of the week.
  • Time spent walking per week should be 5-10 hours.
  • On your non-walking days, try some strength training exercises.
  • If you find yourself worn out, take a day off. But be sure to get back walking the following day.

113 Year-old-man reveals his secret: 5 Foods for long life

Bernardo LaPallo is already 113 years old and still kicking.

Bernardo LaPallo is not an ordinary man. Born in 1901 and at 113 he is older than any of you and that happened not by chance but by sheer discipline and desire to live longer. He has a few secrets though; five of them to be exact and he shared that so you can live a long life too.
LaPallo who hails from Mesa, Arizona claims that he has never been sick a day in his life and that he has avoid red meat and eats mostly organic food and vegetables. His secret is a recipe that he inherited from his father who was a doctor and a much disciplined man.

If you think that yeah maybe he’s 113 years old but can’t live decently, you’re wrong. He can still do a lot of stuff including solving crosswords and reading books – not ebooks, he is traditional like that.
Check the video done when he was 110 below to learn his 5 secret foods for long life, and yeah he’s still alive:
We listed the five foods below for your convenience:

Garlic
Garlic has been used in many continents as a medicinal herb. It has antiseptic and antibacterial properties that have been proven to work effectively without the side effects.

 Honey
Honey, nature’s best sweetener has been featured in our website several times for its wonderful effects. If you need a sweetener, our 110-year-old legend wants you to use this.

 Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a popular food enhancer and while extracts from the bark of the cinnamon tree have also been used traditionally as medicine throughout the world, the very cinnamon power you can buy in stores can lower blood cholesterol and prevent onset of diabetes.

Chocolate
The food of the gods is called as such for a reason. And if you think chocolates are just for kids or those with sweet tooth, you’re wrong. LaPallo says it’s a vital ingredient in having a long life.

 Olive oil
Wars have been fought for olive and its oil. We’re not kidding. But today you can easily buy them in groceries and they’re not expensive at all. Incorporate it in your daily diet and feel the difference.
Bernardo LaPallo holding a bottle of olive oil during an interview with the press.