How Exercise Can Help You Sleep Better…

The more active your body is during the day, the more likely you are able to relax fully at night and fall asleep easily.

With regular exercise your sleep quality is improved and the transition between the cycles and phases of sleep becomes smoother and more regular.

Keeping up your physical activity during the day may also be help you deal with the stress and worry in your life.

Studies indicate that there is a direct correlation between how much we exercise and how we feel both emotionally and physically by changes in our brain chemistry that occur from regular exercise.

Try to increase your physical daily activity during the day. The goal here is to give your body enough stimulation during the day so that you are not restless at night.

Our bodies require a certain amount of physical activity in order to function in a healthy manner.

It is important to note that you should not be exercising three to four hours before bed.

The ideal time for you to exercise is in the late afternoon or early evening. You want to expend your physical energy long before it is time for your body to rest and ready itself for sleep.

Attempt to exercise at least three to four times a week for a continuous period of 20 to 30 minutes. This can include something as simple as walking or something as strenuous as running.

The goal is to increase your heart rate and strengthen your lung capacity. Adding a regular exercise activity to your daily schedule will improve your overall health and benefit you emotionally. This is can help promote a natural remedy for your sleeplessness.

Besides walking and running there are many physical activities that you can add to your life to increase your activity level. Aerobic exercises seem to work best to battle sleeplessness.

Your goal is to increase the amount of oxygen that reaches your blood. There are many types of aerobic activities to choose from. These include running, biking, using a treadmill, jumping rope, and dancing.

Some non-aerobic activities may be beneficial to you as you attempt to solve your insomnia problem. The following activities are relaxing and have other healing properties:

– Yoga has a stimulatory effect on your nervous system, particularly the brain. Yoga uses breathing techniques and yoga postures to increase blood circulation to the brain centre, promoting regular and restful sleeping patterns. Regular practice of yoga will relax you as well as relieve stress and tension.

– Tai Chi is a form of breathing and movement that was developed by ancient Chinese monks. The movements involved in Tai Chi are precise and slow, which is ideal if you have joint pain or are unable to participate in high impact aerobic exercises. Studies have shown that Tai Chi may help people with insomnia by promoting relaxation.

If you find that you have no time to exercise on a regular basis try sneaking extra moments of activity into your daily schedule. Take the stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible.

Try parking your car around the corner and walking that extra block to your appointment. There are many small ways that you can incorporate some added activity into your life. Your goal is to have a healthy, well balanced life…


 

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How Exercise Can Help With Anti Aging

Strength training has been proven to help the body naturally produce HGH. The more you train the more your body produces HGH. Strength training is taking exercises to specifically strengthen certain muscles. You can do this by spending 20 minutes a day 3 times a week at your local gym or fitness center. Or if you have some simple equipment you can do this at home. Just some simple squats can stimulate the body to make HGH and help you lose weight as well. It will take about 24-48 hours for your body to build up HGH.

Research has found that for every hour you work out your body will make $10,000 worth of beneficial chemicals that it needs. This means that with some simple exercise you will not even need to go to an Anti Aging Clinic your body will produce the chemicals naturally.

Try to strength train on a regular basis. As well as getting the HGH you will also improve bone mass and get more oxygen to your body tissues and organs. This will help them function better. You will feel better when you lose weight in this way as well. This is what the HGH injections at the Anti aging clinic will do for you. However nothing beats the natural treatment that your body can do for you.

So instead of jumping on the bandwagon and running to the nearest Anti Aging clinic, give yourself a break and let your body do it the natural way. Strength training coupled with diet will go a long way towards achieving your goal of not only a great looking body but also very possibly prolonging your life.

As well as exercise try to adjust your diet to a healthier one with more fruits especially berries and whole grain cereals. Try to add some fish to your diet (not shellfish) to make a complete diet. Cut down red meats, salt, fats and refined sugar and you will find your body rewards you as you feel better and have more energy. This change of diet coupled with strength exercises will also help you to lose and keep off those pounds.

You can also add natural nutritional supplements to your diet to ensure you are getting enough of the essential nutrients. These, when taken at a proper level will also help the anti aging process.


 

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How Exercise Affects Your Cholesterol levels

An estimated 99.9 million American adults have total blood cholesterol values of 200 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter) and higher, and of these about 34.5 million American adults have levels of 240 or above. In adults, total cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dl or higher are considered high risk. Levels from 200 to 239 mg/dl are considered borderline-high risk.

So then, what does this have to do with supporting a case to make exercise a priority? I mean how can exercise help with cholesterol levels anyway? Isn't high cholesterol only controllable by diet and medication? Let's review the following:

In a study reported in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 1989, 13,000 men and women were studied for eight years. Risk factors for death from all diseases were studied and this was the conclusion:

The data showed that an unfit man could reduce his risk of death from all diseases by some 37% and an unfit woman could reduce her risk by around 48%. The summary was that exercise not only lowered cholesterol levels significantly but also lowered the risk of death from heart disease as well as from all diseases.

Another study conducted by the "Centers for Disease Control" in 1989 concluded that people who do not exercise have twice the risk of developing heart disease than those who do exercise.

One study done at the University of California showed that married men aged 35 to 65 who started a regular exercise program had more sexual intercourse with their wives and had more orgasms than those who did not exercise. (If that's not a good enough reason to don those jogging shorts and weight lifting gloves, I don't know what is!)

Cholesterol is just another type of fat in your body. Since exercise helps to burn up fat in your body, this fat is also burned up as well during exercise. As a result of this, your cholesterol levels are reduced through exercise. But what kind of exercise is best for this? The long and short answer is; any kind of exercise! Even walking regularly has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels.

Of course limiting your intake of fatty cuts of meat and sticking to low-fat or even better, fat-free dairy products helps too. Also, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, particularly high fiber ones, coupled with a moderate exercise program will surly help you win the battle against high cholesterol.


 

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How Does Alcohol Affect Exercise?

Anyway, like always, tomorrow is a workout day and since you exercise regularly and take care of yourself a little alcohol won't hurt anything along the way, right? Well, before you head out to the local pub, here are a few things to consider in making your choice of just how much you really want to drink.

Studies have shown that small amounts of alcohol increase muscular endurance and strength output, but, these benefits are very short lived. After around twenty or so minutes, the problems start. All the negative side affects of alcohol fully outweigh any possible benefits it can have to anyone. Alcohol is a toxin (poison) and so a whole host of physical abnormalities can arise.

These can reduce your strength, endurance, recovery capabilities, aerobic capacity, ability to metabolize fat and muscle growth. Alcohol can also affect your nervous system and brain. Long term use can cause severe deterioration of your central nervous system. With short term use, nerve-muscle interaction can be reduced resulting in a loss of strength.

When alcohol reaches the muscle cells, it can cause damage to them. Inflammation of the muscle cells is common among alcohol users. Over the long term, some of these damaged cells can die resulting in less functional muscle contractions. Alcohol will also leave you with more muscle soreness after exercise making recuperation periods longer.

Alcohol has many affects on your heart and circulatory system as well. You may see a reduction in your endurance capacities when you drink alcohol. When drinking alcohol, your heat loss increases, because alcohol stimulates your blood vessels to dilate. This heat loss can cause your muscles to get cold thus becoming slower and weaker during contractions.

Alcohol can cause digestive and nutritional problems as well. Alcohol causes a release of insulin that will increase the metabolism of glycogen, thereby sparing fat making fat loss more difficult. Because alcohol also can interfere with the absorption of many nutrients, you can become anemic and deficient in the B vitamins. Since your liver is the organ that detoxifies alcohol, the more you drink, the harder you liver has to work and the extra stress can damage and even destroy some liver cells.

Alcohol is also diuretic so large amounts can put a lot of extra stress on your kidneys. During diuretic action, ant diuretic hormones are secreted. This can result in heightened water retention and no one who exercises wants that to happen. Alcohol, although having no nutritional value, also has seven calories per gram so excess consumption can lead to weight gain as well.

If you must consume alcohol, do so in moderation and never consume alcohol right before exercise as this will impair your balance, coordination and judgment. Remember this, if you've taken the time to make the effort to improve your physical conditioning and your overall health, why take major steps backwards and impede you improvements by excess consumption of alcohol?


 

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How Dance Dance Revolution is getting kids off the couch

Are you concerned about the lack of exercise your child is getting? Would you like to see them up and moving instead of sitting around so much?

Dance Dance revolution is the latest dance craze that is a fun and addictive way to help your child get get up and move without realizes they are even exercising.

Our kids health and fitness is more important today than ever before since video games, TV and computers are turning our kids into couch potatoes. This new dance craze called Dance Dance revolution is a video game played on a gaming system but it is not your typical video game. This fun and exciting Dance pad is hooked up to any play station or Xbox then the player chooses one of their favorite songs from the DDR video game.

This fast paced game will surely get your child's heart pumping and their feet moving! The player chooses their song and they move their feet to the pattern of the arrows on the dance pad while keeping the beat to the flashing arrows that are moving side to side and up and down. As your child gets more practice on this engaging game, you will move to higher and higher levels which will progressively turn the game into a fun and challenging workout.

There are many kids today that do not like the typical physical activities that sports provide but once they try Dance Dance Revolution they are usually hooked.

There are many levels from beginner to advanced even the youngest of children can play Dance Dance Revolution.

What better way to get your children involved in exercise than by doing something they love.

If you have a gaming system such as a Play station or Xbox you can own Dance revolution, just connect the DDR Pad to any of these systems. If you want your kids up off the couch doing something that is good for them while they are having fun I highly recommend DDR. What better gift can you give them? Next time your child asks for a play station or Xbox game buy them the DDR pad and game.

Make sure your child keeps his water bottle close by, he's going to need it after this workout.

Weight Loss and Dance revolution

Dance Dance Revolution games offer a specific "Workout Mode" in which players can choose a song, and play accordingly using either the normal step routine, or a modified step routine designed to provided a workout. The workout mode also allows players to track their progress, not in the standard step scores, but by calories burned, minutes played, and distance traveled. The game also calculates the equivalent of DDR dancing to common exercise activities, and can keep track of a player's weight as well.

The built-in workout features have inspired many DDR fans to make playing DDR their primary source of exercise, and some have built entire weight-loss regimens around the game. However, as with all new diet or exercise plans, it is recommended that one discusses the changes with their doctor

There are many different types of DDR pad you can purchase. You will need a gaming system such as a Play station or an Xbox and of course the DDR pads and DDR games

So if you are interested in an extremely fun way to get in shape go ahead and give Dance Dance Revolution a try!

Hear what others are saying about DDR:

Natalie, 14, was drawn to the pulsing techno songs, and didn't realize she had slimmed down until she went clothes shopping.

"I went to go buy pants and the 14s were too big. The more I played, I gradually had to get smaller size pants," said Natalie, who now buys size 8 baggy.

Zachary 13, I did not even realize that I was exercising until my mom said something to me one day about losing weight. I realized that Dance revolution was not only fun but I was getting a great workout!


 

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How Can You Save Money On A New Treadmill


 

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How can I stay motivated when it comes to home exercise?

Music is a great motivator. Sports teams play music in their locker rooms, during half-time shows or other game breaks and/or during events when specific players go up to perform in their games. Music is just as motivating for exercise enthusiasts as it is for professional players and training athletes. Most people prefer pulse-beating music while they exercise, but the favored or preferred music of the individual will most likely be the best music to which that person can work out. Taking your mind off the 'discomfort' of working your muscles and offering some great motivation, music is a great resource for individuals who want to exercise.

In many gyms today, individuals can find televisions. Most people have this amenity in their home as well. Television is another great way to distract the exerciser when they are performing an activity that does not require their immediate and constant attention. Such activities can include working out on an exercise bike, a total home gym apparatus, elliptical machine, stepper and/or the like. It passes the time and allows the individual to take part in a more 'pleasant' activity. At the same time, individuals can utilize the television in another way as well – as a way to play and watch exercise programs. DVDs and VCR cassettes have been designed for exercisers in order to help keep people motivated with a specific exercise program. If you need instruction to stay motivated and with a set timeframe for the program, the television and playable exercise programs can be a great help.

Exercising at home does not mean exercising alone. You can always bring a buddy to your house to exercise. Additional motivation can easily be found in an exercise partner and this is very reassuring to many people who want to stay focused, but who may not want to leave the comfort of their own home.

Lastly, consider visualization. It's easy to have a textual goal or a number in your mind. "I would like to lose twenty-five pounds". You might find yourself saying that over and over again in your mind, trying to convince yourself to stay focused. But this number repetition may not be the best thing for you. Instead, find a picture of yourself when you weighed your ideal weight. If you do not have a picture, try to visualize the way that your body would look if you lost that weight. Having a mental image can help you more than a simple number-filled phrase might.


 

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Home Gyms Can Be Made More Effective

One thing you may not have realized though is that home gyms can be made more effective if you make use of the right accessories to go with your home gym equipment. What sorts of accessories you wonder? Well certainly not a cool pair of glasses or a set of sparkly shoelaces on your tennis shoes. After all you'll be working out at home where none will see you.

In terms of accessories you can buy a heart rate monitor to help you figure out whether you've achieved your target heart rate when exercising. Some pieces of home gym equipment all ready have this device as a part of their repertoire so it may not be necessary for you to buy one. But if you don't you may want to get one. It will make it a heck of a lot easier than trying to take your pulse, keep exercising and counting heart beats while watching the clock.

Also if you have a treadmill you may want to pick up one of those pedometers. Some treadmills come with this simple measure to help you figure if you've run or walked the equivalent of a mile or not. If yours doesn't you can get a pedometer to measure the number of footfalls you make while using the machine and it will help you to figure up your mileage. Depending on your stride you will have anywhere from 1600 to 2000 footsteps in a mile.


 

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Home Gym Full Body Training Routines

But what do you do when you don't feel you have the energy to stop by the local gym on your way home? Or may be you don't have the time for a workout at the gym. You can only use 20 – 30 min.

What's the solution then? It could be only one – a full body workout at your home gym.

But first take this from me. If you don't have a home gym set up already, don't even think of missing a workout. Go to the local gym where you are a member. Missing a single workout can set a path for a habit. Vice versa, not missing a workout won't let you think of such an option.

So, let's suppose that it's one of these days when you can't make it to the gym, and are planning on working out at home. That means you have a gym of some sort, already set up.

In this article I want to advise you on your choices for a full body routine. The workout you will pick however, will all depend on how your home gym is equipped.

For example you might have a home-gym machine. Or you might be a hardcore bodybuilder. Then you have free weights as your main equipment.

If you belong to the first group – you own a home gym machine – this is the part you should be reading.

The simplest home gym machines are equipped for at least several exercises such as: bench press, lat pull down, seated rows, biceps curls, triceps push-downs, leg extensions and standing hamstring curls.

That's actually plenty. You can complete the whole body in a single session.

Your circuit workout:

/Warm up/ Crunches 2-3 x 15 – 30 Seated bench press 3 x 10 – 12 Lat pull-down 3 x 10 – 12 Front cable raises (machine behind you, lower pulley cable between your thighs) 3 x 10 – 12 Standing biceps cable curls (lower pulley cable, facing the machine) 3 x 10 – 12 Standing triceps push-downs (using the lat-pull down handle) 3 x 10 – 12 Leg extensions 3 x 12 – 15 Standing hamstring curls (facing the machine) 3 x 12 – 15 /Cool down/

You have more options for replacing some of the exercises:

Replace seated bench press wide grip with seated bench press close grip.

Replace lat pull down with seated rows (facing the machine).

Replace standing biceps cable curls with lying cable curls (lie down on the floor on your back and place your feet on the rolling pads for support).

In case that you belong to the second group – you are a hardcore enthusiast or bodybuilder, the least equipment you have (I would guess) is an adjustable bench, a power rack, an olympic barbell set and a pair of dumbbells with adjustable weights.

For you I'd suggest two circuit routines. You can do only one of them or you can do two circuits, using both if you feel you have energy (and desire) to do that:

Workout One/Circuit One

/Warm up/ Crunches 1-2 x 15 – 30 Flat bench press on the rack 2-3 x 12 – 15 Barbell rows 2-3 x 10 – 15 Seated dumbbell overhead presses 2-3 x 12 – 15 Barbell curls 2-3 x 8 – 12 Barbell lying triceps extensions 2-3 x 12 – 15 Squats 2-3 x 10 x 15 Stiff Leg Dead Lifts 2-3 x 10 – 12 /Cool down/

Workout Two/Circuit Two

/Warm up/ Reverse crunches 1-2 x 15 – 20 Dumbbell flys 2-3 x 10 – 12 One-arm dumbbell rows 2-3 x 10 – 12 Dumbbell lateral raises 2-3 x 10 – 12 Seated dumbbell curls 2-3 x 8 – 12 One-arm overhead triceps extensions 2-3 x 8 – 12 Lunges (holding a pair of dumbbells) 2-3 x 12 – 15 /Cool down/

Note that the number of reps is slightly higher than what you would normally do should you have worked out at the gym. I did it this way intentionally. My advice is that you use 50 – 70% of your One Rep Max due to the fact that you don't have a spotter. If you think you can go heavier please do, but at your own risk.

That's it. Now that you finished your workout you deserve a nice, chilled protein shake. After all you are at home and can make it any way you want, right. And, yes, you should feel good because you didn't miss your workout.


 

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Home Exercise Programs Designed For Weight Loss

The Convenience Factor:

Exercise at your convenience. By performing regular exercises you will place a greater demand on your body's stores of fat and you will cause your metabolism to increase dramatically. Your body will burn fat as a source of energy at an accelerated rate and the end result will be a slimmer, more toned you. Your level of fitness will improve with each workout routine you perform. Exercise videos are a great way to learn the best exercises to burn fat and build lean muscle and you will be able to exercise in your very own home at your convenience.

Inexpensive:

There is no need for expensive gym memberships or extravagant exercise equipment. Fun, fast-paced exercise videos featuring well-know fitness experts and celebrities will give you the inspiration and direction you need to create your very own, highly effective home workout routine. How much would you have to pay to have Denise Austin as your personal trainer? With home exercise videos, she'll be available to you 24 hours a day for pennies a day.

All levels:

Home exercise videos are available for any fitness level from beginner to advanced. As your level of fitness increases you can move on to more advanced exercise routines to keep your body healthy and make weight loss much easier than with dieting alone.

Variety:

It is a good idea to change your exercise routine on a regular basis to keep your body challenged and make continued weight loss possible. After performing the same exercises over and over your body will require more advanced workouts to continue to burn excess fat and calories. Exercise videos will allow you to make progress at your own pace and give your metabolism the boost it needs to burn fat for energy. From Ballet to Hip Hop, there are exercise videos for every interest. Different types of exercises will cause your body to respond in different ways. You will be able to find a variety of exercise videos that will give you the types of workouts you need to gain muscle tone and lose weight fast.

Regular exercise is critical to your health and well being. Find the exercise videos that suit your lifestyle and your goals and you can begin exercising in your very own home immediately. Your body will thank you for your efforts and you will look and feel better than you have in years. Weight loss is drastically easier when dieting is combined with exercise. Home exercise programs and fun videos you can do in your home are a great way to get in shape and experience fast weight loss.


 

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