Barbell squats for the hamstrings

After performing the leg curls and leg press exercises, it is always appropriate to perform squats using barbells. The major advantage of performing the squats is that it helps to improve the loading ability of buttocks and hamstrings. To perform squats, firstly lift the barbells and slowly move them downwards till the hamstrings and calves meet each other.

Stay in this position for 3-5 secondswhile making the return rep try and move the barbell slowly and gradually back to the normal position in about 10-15 seconds. Avoid locking the knees while making these reps. An intermediate rest is always advisable in the midst of these exercise session. Make as many reps as possible, since this is an excellent exercise to improve the complete strength of most important regions of our lower body.

Seated calf raise to strengthen the soleus muscles

Following the barbell squats you may proceed with seated calf raises. Using barbell or resistance arm to increase the work out strength proceed for as many reps of raise as possible.

Trunk curl exercises

To perform the trunk curls, lie down on your back bringing your heels close to your buttocks and keeping the knees wide apart from each other. Try to curl the shoulders gradually towards the hips. Performing one third of a sit up in this position will bring a burning sensation to the abdomen. Make a few reps if possible and then take a rest for 5-10 minutes and relax.It is important that these exercises be performed only after warm up, maximum benefits are observable only if these work outs follow a preliminary leg raise or extension exercise segment.

Leg curl exercises

Leg curls are an excellent exercise mode for the calf and thigh muscles, to perform leg curls lift the movement arm of the curls to the contracted position in about 10 seconds. Take a pause for about 5-6 seconds. Bring back the curls to normal position. Make a repetition 4-6 times to have a complete work out.

Extension exercises for the legs

To perform this exercise efficiently, first of all bring you knees in alignment with the rotating axis of the moving arm of the curls. The exercise has to be performed at a very slow pace to gain the maximum benefits out of it. The ultra slow movements of the movement arm would be helpful in ensuring a very strong quadriceps. Make as many repetitions as possible to get the maximum out put. It is very important that you moce directly to the leg press machine following the leg curl exercises.

Leg Press Exercise

Leg press machine has all the ranges of motion to provide a complete workout of the leg muscles. In case the movements are restricted adjust the same to have complete movement range. Make slow movements and avoid locking the knees while performing the reps. Maximum affected regions with this exercising module are the frontal thigh muscles and the quadriceps.

This set of three exercises when repeated 3-4 times a week helps in providing a lot of strength to the front thigh and quadriceps region of the legs. The only important factor of consideration and caution is the slow pace in which these exercises should be performed.

Aerobics are highly beneficial to make the muscles flexible along with an improvement in lung capacity and heart rate improvement. Another important aspect of both the components of stretching is an improvement in circulatory functioning and blood flow which makes sure an increased blood flow to the muscles. In general a warming up should be focussed from the head to the toes or from toe to head depending on one’s choice of synchronization.

Neck roll exercise for neck and shoulder stretching

Neck roll is an excellent mode of relaxing and stretching the neck as well as shoulders. Neck rolls are especially important if you are going to practice any type of grappling discipline, where the neck takes a lot of the strain. To perform the neck rolls stand with your hands by your sides and breathe deeply, letting your shoulders, arms and whole body relax as much as possible.

As soon as you feel a little relaxed let your head fall forward slowly and in a synchronized manner till the chin touches the chest. A gentle stretch in the back of the neck would be experienced. Rotate the head to your right and all the way around as though trying to get your right ear to touch your right shoulder. A repetition three to four times is considered sufficient for a perfect stretch and relaxation.

Bending exercise for stretching the lateral portions of the body

This movement stretches the side of the body, especially the oblique muscles. To do so, place your left arm by your left side and your right arm above your head, your legs shoulder width apart and straight. Initially, bend to your left side and stretch gently, avoid bouncing, as far as you can comfortably go. At full stretch hold for the four to five seconds, returning slowly to the start position. Make three to four reps for completely relaxed experience.

What you eat decides how you grow?

It can be unequivocally stated that a fast-food or junk food diet is not something helpful in ageing healthy. It is always advisable to avoid fat rich diet, once you try to stay low in fat, you are not only managing your physique but you are also helping your system to remain low in toxic waste and maintain an appropriate metabolic rate.

The more water you drink the healthier you are!

Drink plenty of water and also make sure you take juices and fruits on regular basis. While importance of water has already been discussed in a previous article, taking a lot of juices makes you rich in vital and regularly available energy.

Exercise regularly and on daily basis

Target heart rate maintenance is an important factor for healthy ageing. It is important that you exercise regularly to increase your heart rate. While increasing heart rate dos not mean an undue pressure on the heart but on ideal levels with moderate physical activity for 30 minutes a acceptable heart rate elevation could be achieved.

It is also worth understanding that apart from the physical exercise it is also important to exercise the brain on a regular basis, this brain exercise could be done by solving the crossword or playing a game of chess, even your laptop would be of great help to exercise your brain.

Give your body enough rest

Taking short naps and having a sound night’s sleep is not only important for rejuvenating the body but also for improving the detoxification process of the body. A good rest ensures a proper metabolic balance within the body.

What is Padmasana?

Padmasana literally means lotus pose. Padmasana is a means to improve the fitness of pelvic joints and abdominal muscles. ‘Padma’ is a Sanskrit term to define lotus whereas ‘Asana’ means pose or action. Therefore, by achieving the lotus pose a yogic sense of achieving the eternal bliss and mental rejuvenation is anticipated.

How to perform Padmasana?

In order to perform Padmasana, sit in the normal relaxed pose. It is advisable first to sit in a half lotus position initially. To do so, bend the left knee while being seated and try and bring the ankle to the pelvic line. Further try and repeat the same action from the other leg. Once you have completed the action from both the legs try and perform the full lotus action.

Bring the ankle of the two legs to the pelvic ridge, with the left leg on top first and making a repetition with right leg on top. Once you have both ankles on the pelvic ridge try and put both your hands on the floor while trying to balance the whole body weights on your hand for 5-10 seconds. While, sitting on the lotus pose close your eyes for a while as Padmasana is also considered beneficial to enhance spiritual fitness as well.

Benefits of Padmasana

Padmasana helps in improving the abdominal functions and it is also considered useful in solving the problems of urogenital tract. Apart from this, Padmasana has also found to be effective in reducing the excessive fat depositions in the pelvic and thigh regions of the body.

In totality practicing Padmasana could be more than beneficial to achieve fitness in the lower regions of the body and pelvic joints.

A hanging belly is a curse for the back health

In an interesting research conducted on obese people with hanging belly fat, it was revealed that there were nearly 50% more chances of back pain and problems than in normal people. Your abdominal muscles, especially the deep-lying ones, help form a solid corset for your back.

People with an inordinately protruding stomach do not usually have stomach pain, but back pain, as their spine is unable to carry the excessive baggage that they have put on in course of time. Doing abs exercises is the key to giving your back a felxibility and ability to carry this excess load. It is also important to understand that abdominal workout helps in improving your posture.

Ab exercise and back pain a close connection

Abdominal exercises are used to strengthen the a region so that the burden of body support is evenly distributed. It is always advised by medical doctors to exercise the ab muscles and associated regions to have a strong back.

A few exercises of the abs to strengthen the back

Reflexing the ab and iliopsoas muscles is helpful for bending as well and supporting the spine from the front region. Since these muscles are useful in controlling the arch of the lumbar spine, and adduct muscles of the hip (move the thigh in toward the body).

Obliques or Rotators (side) muscles are also helpful in maintaining the posture and spine curvature, exercising theses muscles stabilize the upright spine. Therefore a flexing action gives strength to these muscles and helps in making a perfect spine posture.

A word of caution

Inadequately exercised stomach muscles cause a tendency towards back pain. Exercising the back and abs is a fruitful exercise to have a comfortable posture and mobility throughout life.

An improvement in the flexibility of the body and stretching can be achieved by performing Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates etc., these techniques have also been considered as effective in improvising the posture, as well as fitness. It must always be very well understood and borne in the mind that weight training will certainly ensure an improved strength, but would not be useful in improving the flexibility, which is an equally important aspect of the overall fitness and health of the body.

In terms of exercising, flexibility is something that you can either continue to have or lose it completely. While being flexible helps you to avoid injury and have better posture the opposite may prove to be a menace.

Standing short stretch exercises

To have a better flexibility pas weight training session the short stretch exercises (SSE’s) are highly promising and beneficial. All SSE’s are performed in a standing position. The main regions which are affected in stretching are the shoulders, back, chest, hamstrings etc. To perform the short stretches try focussing on the muscles you want to work out, then gradually try and use various exercise poses to stretch and provide flexibility to this region. Always remember to further the stretching session followed by mobility exercises for shoulders, knees, ankles and neck.

Make stretching a habit for better muscular action

Get into a habit of stretching on a daily basis. Try having a short stretching session as soon as you get out of bed, it may spare you from any muscular inappropriateness in the bathroom apart from making you more energetic and vibrant from morning itself. Morning stretches should be performed carefully as the long inactive period makes the muscles stiff and less pliable, a small warm up session is also worth considering as soon as you get out of the bed.

Always remember a flexible body full of strength is an achievement, while a strong body without flexibility is highly susceptible to injuries and other fitness problems.

What are the important components present in evening primrose?

Evening primrose seeds contain up to 25 percent oil. Evening primrose oil contains two types of omega-6 fatty acids, the firts one is linoleic acid which is nearly 20-40% and gamma-linolenic acid which is present in an appreciable quantity as well i.e. 8 to 14 percent. Linolenic acids are considered essential fatty acids because they are required for health and are not synthesized by the body. Linolenic acid deficiency produces visible signs in the skin, including eczema, impetigo, and erythema. Evening primrose oil is used in the formulation of cosmetic products and also as a dietary supplement.

Health benefits of evening primrose oil

Essential fatty acids, including linolenic acid found in evening primrose oil, cannot be manufactured in the human body, and their supply is dependent on adequate dietary intake. Inadequate intake or compromised conversion to active metabolites can result in symptoms such as hair loss, eczema, disorders in connective tissue, poor wound healing, poor immune and reproductive function, and degeneration of organs, including the liver and kidney.

Clinical studies and animal trials have been conducted wherein, evening primrose oil preparations were tested on patients with with eczema, arthritis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetic neuropathy, premenstrual syndrome and obesity. Although the herb has been found to potent in reducing the atopic eczema, there is still a need to validate the use on a regular scale.

Evening primrose oil and obesity

A lot of research has been conducted on animal models of obesity and a positive efficacy trends have been observed so far. Research on clinical level is still preliminary to provide a hardened evidence still one thing that can be surely mentioned with the available evidence is that the evening primrose oil can have lot of health benefits in future.

Shoes are a means of protection

Wearing shoes ensure the prevention of your foot from any injury that may be incurred during a weight fallout or accidental drop of dumbbells etc. Wearing a shoe also provides a safeguard to imbalance and fall over while weight lifting. Cross training shoes which are specially designed for weight training are very useful in providing proper exercising comfort as well as proper lateral support.

Running shoes should be avoided

It is important to understand that while weight training the important aspect of consideration is balance and support to the whole body, which is already under pressure. Running shoes do not provide the kind of balance that is desirable. Firstly, running shoes generally have a raised soul which is generally unacceptable for weight training. Secondly, running shoes do not provide a total support to the base of the ankle making them susceptible to jerk while heavy weight lifting.

Tips on selecting the right kind of shoes

With a cut throat competition, and many companies entering the sport shoe market, the variety of sport shoes available has quadrupled in the past decade or so, with this increased number of choices available the confusion on making the right choice has increased manifolds as well. Here, we will be providing a few tips you must have in the back of your mind before making a selection.

Always change your worn out shoes as soon as you find them misfit or damaged. Remember the thickness of your exercising socks or try and have them on while making the shoe selection. Check out for the comfort of your thumb and ankle while selecting the shoe. Walk a few meters before finally buying the shoe.

Finally, never make a compromise with your footwear; they may appear to be unimportant but a wrong choice may be a cause for a lot of fitness troubles. Show a little caution and intelligence and make your exercising more fruitful and safe with a proper foot wear.

Well! as a matter of fact a lot of sleep research scientists working on sleep and its relation with health and fitness have confirmed that the better we sleep the better we are physically as well as mentally. In this context, we would first attempt to have a look at the mattress choice and how it may affect our sleep posture as well as total spine fitness.

Sleep mattress and spine fitness

The first and foremost important point in a proper sleep is spine alignment. In general, your spine must be in proper alignment while you are lying down, whether for a rest, nap or good night’s sleep. Sleeping on the wrong kind of mattress can throw your spine out of alignment.

While a soft, sagging mattress fails to give proper support to the heaviest part of the body, the pelvic region and thus causes the spine to curve toward the side on which the person is sleeping. In contrast, a hard mattress causes curvature in the opposite direction because it does not provide the sufficient compression to accommodate the wider hip and shoulder areas. This kind of mattress neither gives the back or spine the proper kind of support when lying on the back or stomach.

The right choice of mattress

The best option would be to look for a semi-rigid mattress, firm and flat this should be the one with sufficient resilience to allow shoulder and pelvic bones to form their own natural hollows. This kind of mattress would certainly ensure proper spine alignment and health.

It is very important to make a proper choice of mattress before you finally make a decision, firstly because of the comfort aspect and secondly because we eventually spend nearly one third of our life sleeping. Therefore ensuring a better mattress quality for the 33% of our life makes sure the rest 67% is live and full of energy i.e. without aching backs and back pains.