The Importance of a Good Night's Sleep When You're Not Exercising

For most people, eight hours of rest provides the optimal energy needed to charge their memory. Menopausal symptoms such as night sweats may interfere with your ability to get a good night's sleep, but try to get as close as you can to eight hours a night A good night's sleep is both heal­ing and restorative Here's how to get yours

Establish a natural rhythm by going to sleep each night and waking up each day at about the same time. Avoid activities that are stimulating or upsetting right before bed. Watch or read the news earlier in the evening. Limit alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco for several hours before bedtime.

Use your bedroom only for sleeping and excrete a soothing environment with pleasant colors, a comfortable mattress, and smooth sheets. And if you can't sleep, get out of bed to do something relaxing in another room. Drink warm milk or eat a slice of toast with peanut butter or a bowl of cereal.

Poor Posture Can Be a Pain in the Neck and the checklist for improve posture

Good posture involves training your body to stand, walk, sit, and lie in positions where the least strain is placed on support­ing muscles and ligaments during the normal course of move­ment. This is a simple but very important way to keep the many- crucial structures in your back and spine healthy.

Your backbone, or spine, runs from the base of your skull to your tailbone and is composed of thirty-three vertically stacked bones (vertebrae) that are cushioned by disks. Add spinal fluid, and you would think you have ample protection for your spinal cord and nerves. However, it is the way you carry yourself—your posture—that most significantly protects your spine from injury.

Your spinal column is designed to curve naturally, both forward and backward. Your spine has two natural curves, which work like shock absorbers to help your body maintain balance and to move your spinal column through its full range of motion. Your lower back (lumbar curve) bears most of your weight, so proper alignment of this section can prevent injury to your vertebrae, disks, and other portions of your spine.

Checklist for improve posture:

If your head and neck project forward, your back automatically goes out of alignment. Your goal is to position your head over your neck so that you can look directly ahead without feeling tension in your neck. Another great side benefit of keeping your head up and your ears, shoulders, and hips aligned is that you appear more confident, which provides a boost to your ego.

For example, the psychiatric nurse cared for a patient who continuously pressed his shoulders down with his hands—so that he wouldn't float away. While this man was clearly suffering from something other than gravity depravity, the image left me with a last­ing impression: pressing your shoulders down provides a stabilizing anchor for your entire body. Tension in the muscles that lift your shoulders and sup­port your back is the primary cause of most shoulder pain. I've noticed that the shoulders lift at the first sign of fatigue during exercise. To relax your neck and shoulders anytime, do the following: Stretch your head and ear toward your shoulder to alle­viate stiffness in your neck, and rotate or shrug your shoulders to ease tightness.

Minor adjustments in the alignment of your neck, shoul­ders, and back make a dynamic difference in the health of your back as well as your appearance. You can also mini­mize a less-than-flattering silhouette by increasing muscle tone. With appropriate posture when standing, it should be possible to draw a straight line from your earlobe, through your shoulder, hip, and knee, and into the middle of your ankle. Did you ever try to walk like a model by balancing a book on your bead? Today s supermodels that strut the cat­walk with shoulders thrown back and hips forward—often done while teetering on super high heels—would be hard- pressed to accomplish the book-balancing feat.

Standing without slouching, rounding your shoulders, or exaggerating the natural curves of the spine instantly gives you a more youthful and energetic appearance. Furthermore, you can do your own breast lift by lifting your chest while standing tall. Someone advised that the most flattering position for females when sleeping and lying down is with one or both arms overhead. She also suggested that if you want to have an honest look at your naked self, stand before the mirror wearing only boots. By the way, the best way to sleep is on your side with your knees bent, a pillow to support your neck, and a firm mattress.

When you're standing straight, make sure your abs and glutes are gently contracted. My ballet studies taught me that standing straight does not mean holding your spine rigid like a toy soldier. There is always a slight curvature to the spine, maintaining the pelvis in a neutral position, not tilted for­ward or backward. "Neutral spine" is the natural position of the spine when all body parts are in correct alignment.

The most common muscle imbalance leading to back pain is due to weak abdominal muscles and an excess of belly fat that causes the abdomen to protrude. Severe back pain is the direct result, as the abdomen is straining rather than supporting the back. Exercise can help reduce and even eliminate muscle imbalances. You can exercise weaker muscles to catch them up to stronger ones and work to correct and maintain overall stability. After the initial correction of bad posture habits, these movements tend to become automatic and require very little effort to maintain.

Alleviate tension in your back by relax­ing your knees. Unlocking your knees lets you more easily accommodate the natural S curves in your back. Next time you are standing in line at the grocery store and you feel lightness in your lower back, try flexing (bending) your knees while simultaneously tightening the muscles of your abdo­men and gluteus to bring your pelvis into a more neutral position. Be careful not to exaggerate this position by tilting your hips.

Good foot posture helps to put your entire body into balance. Place your feet slightly apart, with one foot positioned slightly in front of the oilier and knees bent just a little bit. Lift the arches of your feet slightly, so that your body weight is supported by out­side edges of your soles. And when you stand or walk, your toes should point almost straight ahead.

According to the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society, "We're all susceptible to foot and ankle injuries, but we can reduce our risk by wearing properly fitting shoes that conform to the natural shape of our feet." It is truly basic, common sense. Orthotics, custom-made inserts for your shoes, can be worn with well-fitting footwear to address certain issues of your feet and lower body. Custom orthotics arc prescribed by a physician and are usually one aspect of a therapy program. By the way, pedicures don't qualify as a therapy, but they sure do look good.

The Right Way to Sit:

•Sit in chairs with straight backs or lumbar (lower-back) support.

•Maintain your cars, shoulders, and hips in a straight line, with your head up and your stomach pulled in.

•Sit back in your chair.

•When sitting at a desk, think in terms of right angles (90 degrees, or the shape of an L). Your knees should be at 90 degree angles when the soles of the feet are touching floor. Your back and thighs should form 90 degree angles when your body is silting properly in a chair, with your legs uncrossed. Your wrists should be straight, with your elbows at 90 degree angles when your hands are on the desk or keyboard.

•Turn by moving your whole body rather than by twisting at your waist

•Try to avoid sitting in the same position for more than thirty minutes.

•Move to the front of the seat of your chair and stand up by straightening your legs. Avoid bending forward at your waist.

Lose the Fat, Keep the Bone

Because of the obesity epidemic, health-care professionals often encourage their patients to reduce their body fat to lower blood cholesterol, blood pressure, and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, the potentially negative effect of weight loss on your bones should also be an important con­sideration. It is well known that rapid weight loss—particu­larly in women over fifty years of age—can take a toll on bone density.

In general, people with low body weight face a greater risk for reduced bone mass and bone fractures. Younger women can also develop osteoporosis, usually due to a poor diet, low body weight and the resulting estrogen loss, calcium deficiency, and malnutrition. Studies show that overly restrictive dieting at any age affects the bones sooner than later, increasing the risk for osteoporosis and fractures throughout life. If your doctor recommends weight loss, discuss your concerns about bone loss and request an evaluation of your bone density. The best way to lose weight with bone health in mind is to do the following:

1.  Lose weight very gradually—a maximum of one to two pounds per week.

2.  Maintain healthy nutrition—include foods with calcium and vitamin D.

3.  Focus on increased activity rather than food deprivation.

4.  If you need to reduce calories, decrease the fat calories and keep the protein.

Don't kill yourself to be the thinnest babe on the block. A diet that contains vital and wholesome foods will support a stronger life force. Be physically active, eat a nutritious diet, and live a healthy lifestyle.



Nutritional Synergy to Improve Your Bone Density

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, you are at increased risk of osteoporosis if match any following item:

1.    You are female.

2.    You are older than fifty.

3.    You have a family history of the disease

4.    You have a personal history of fractures as an adult

5.    You are Caucasian or Asian.

6.    You are small-boned and weigh less than 127 pounds.

7.    You smoke cigarettes.

8.    You drink too much alcohol.

9.    You consume too little calcium

10.   You get little or no weight- bearing exercise.

Certain risk factors, such as age, gender, and genetics, are not subject to change, others, such as tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and exercise, are known as modifiable risk factors, things you have the power to change, if you are still smoking, stop already!

Getting calcium from food improves your bone density more than taking it as a supplement, probably because of other micro- nutrients in the food and a little thing called synergy. Synergy means that the parts of things, taken together, are really equal to more than the whole. In other words, you can't just pull out one ingredient and get the same benefit.  Actually a well-balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D contributes to the health of your bones and works synergistically to make your skeleton stand strong and tall.

The human body requires more calcium than any other min­eral. The adult human body contains about 1,000 to 1,200 mg (milligrams) of calcium, with at least 99 percent of the calcium found in the bones and teeth, giving them strength and rigidity. Getting enough calcium from food or supplements is essential because the human body doesn't produce it. Every day that your body doesn't absorb enough calcium to meet its needs, your body "borrows" calcium from your bones to support the proper func­tioning of your heart, muscles, and nerves and for blood to clot. If this net loss continues day after day, your bone density will steadily decline over time, increasing your risk of osteoporosis.

The amount of calcium that your body can absorb from your digestive tract into your body's circulation depends on several factors including:

1) Vitamin D intake: Adequate vitamin D intake from food and sunlight must be present for calcium absorption.

2) Age: It is very important to maintain strong and dense bones to minimize the effects of calcium loss after age forty.

3) The bioavailability of the foods you consume.

Bioavailability determines how much of the calcium you consume is actually absorbed and utilized by your body. In the United States, milk, yogurt, and cheese arc the major contributors of calcium in the typical diet. (Nonfat and low-fat dairy products have the same amount of calcium as the full-fat variety.

Some vegetables naturally contain phytic acid or oxalic- acid, which are substances that can interfere with optimal calcium absorption. While these substances do not affect the absorption of other calcium-containing foods eaten at the same time, you may have to eat several servings of foods, such as spinach, sweet potatoes, and beans (soy­beans are better absorbed), to obtain the same amount of calcium as is present in one cup of milk.

 Following are some good food sources of absorbable calcium:

Plain low-fat yogurt (1 cup)............................. 448 mg

Sardines, canned in oil (3 ounces)................... 324 mg

Milk, skim (1 cup)......................................... 316 mg

Cheese, mozzarella, part skim (1.5 ounces)........ 310 mg

Orange juice, calcium fortified (1 cup).............. 300 mg

Soy milk, calcium fortified (1 cup).................... 300 mg

Before adding a calcium supplement to your diet, consider your total daily intake of calcium from all foods, including those fortified with calcium. The UL (tolerable upper limit) for calcium is 2,500 mg per day.

It may be necessary to take supplements to ensure that you meet your daily calcium requirement. Sources of calcium exist in nature only in combination with other substances. These substances are called compounds, or calcium salts. The two best calcium supplements arc calcium carbonate and calcium citrate. Both types arc readily available, contain large amounts of ele­mental calcium, and dissolve well in the body. Remember that

From supplements is best when the supplement is taken in doses of 500 mg or less throughout the day, with meals. Experts discovered this last bit of advice the hard way. Like many postmenopausal women, taking calcium and doing weight- bearing exercise to stave osteoporosis. Alter having several normal bone density tests, over several years, the experts were surprised to have a test that reported osteopenia, which while not a disease does indicate low bone density and can lead to osteoporosis. After consulting with my doctor, I learned that I was mistakenly taking my daily 1,500 mg dose of calcium all at once, instead of spreading it out over the day in doses of no more than 500 mg. What a difference that made! The next year I was back in the normal range for bone mineral density.

Vitamin D is manufactured in your skin through exposure to ultraviolet rays from sunlight and is necessary for the absorp­tion of up to 65 percent of calcium. Like calcium, vitamin D levels decline with age, with bone loss generally greater in the winter. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that women age fifty or under get 400 to 800IU of vitamin D per day and that women fifty or older get 800 to 1,000 IU. Good sources of vitamin D are fortified milk, egg yolks, saltwater fish, liver, and supplements.

Stay Upright with Strength, Balance, and Flexibility for Avoiding Fall

For somebody who have osteoporosis, avoiding fall is paramount. Even a seemingly minor fall can lead to a fractured wrist, hip, or spine. Hip fractures almost always require hospitalization and major surgery and can result in prolonged or permanent disability. Exercising with weights definitely increases your ability to circumvent a disabling fall.

Strength

Regular weight-bearing exercises that force you to work against gravity have clearly been shown to minimize bone loss, espe­cially after menopause. Maintaining muscle strength so that you can move your body about with ease and grace is one aspect of fall prevention; having strength to rise from a chair, climb stairs, and lift objects can mean the difference between stand­ing tall or doing not much at all. Exercise has profound effects on the strength and integrity of your bones. You have to add a weight-bearing component to your fitness regime to maintain and even rebuild bone. Aerobic exercises such as swimming and biking don't provide enough stress on the long bones of the body to stimulate bone growth; walking, climbing stairs, and danc­ing are weight bearing and good for your bones.

Balance

One side of your body, usually the less dominant side, may become more easily fatigued when you are exercising. Working to correct this disparity leads to a greater ability to respond to shifts in body weight caused by unexpected obstacles—like a dog underfoot—and a stronger, more stable stance. Balance can be improved with practice, so do test yours frequently. Try to balance on one foot, or practice heel-to-toe walking: for each new step, place the lead foot directly in front of the other.

Flexibility

Increasing your range of motion enables you to move your body more effortlessly and in the ways that you want—for example, bending down to speak to a child or stretching up to reach a shell—and plays a significant role in your body's ability to respond to everyday tasks and challenges. For a variety of exer­cises that promote flexibility.

How to strengthen and stretch your hamstrings

When people talk about hamstrings, they are usually referring to the three separate muscles that stretch from the rear end to the back of the knee. Actually, a hamstring is one of the strings ­like tendon felt on either side of the back of the knee. Your muscles pull on the tendons to bend your knees and straighten your hips when you move your leg backward.

Surprisingly, your large hamstring muscles are minimally involved with normal walking and are inactive when you stand, but when you lean forward to sit down or tie your shoes, all three hamstring muscles are engaged. Your hamstrings are extremely important in activities requiring power, such as running, jump­ing, and climbing, which is usually how most hamstring injuries occur. Athletes exercise with resistance to create stronger, faster leg muscles. The rest of us can also benefit from stronger, faster leg muscles—throw in shapely, and its a deal you can't refuse.

The muscles of your quadriceps and hamstrings work as a team of antagonists. Because muscles can only exert a pulling force, the contraction of your quadriceps causes your ham­strings to relax, and vice versa. Located on the front of your thigh, your quadriceps tendons attach the four strong quadri­ceps muscles to your kneecap and extend down to your shin. Your muscle pulls on your tendons to straighten your knee. If you have well-developed quadriceps muscles and your ham­string strength is less than two-thirds the strength of your quad­riceps, the imbalance makes you more vulnerable to injury.

Spend time strengthening and stretching your hamstrings and quadriceps. Hamstrings tend to be tight, so it is especially important to stretch them after each workout. Tight hamstrings are often the culprits in lower-back pain by causing your hips and pelvis to rotate back, thereby flattening your lower back. This position stretches the ligaments in your lower back and stresses your disks. Always maintain the natural curve in your lower back whether standing, sitting, or lying down. Never allow your back to flatten or bow out.

If you sit at your desk every day with poor posture, your hamstrings may tighten. Correcting your posture and stretching will do you a world of good. Poor sitting posture is that your hips slide forward in the chair and your lower back rounds with the tailbone tucked under, for the correct sitting posture, your back is straight and your shoul­ders are back, your rear end touches the back of your chair. Bedsides, Stretch your hamstrings on the plane, at your desk:

1. Use correct sitting posture.

2. Straighten one knee, flex your toes up, and lift your tail- bone (similar to the flat back position).

3. Keep your weight evenly distributed on both hips.

4. Hold for about fifteen seconds and repeat on the other side.

Increased Muscle, Increased Metabolism, Reduced Body Fat and Prevented Muscular Dystrophy

Muscle drives your metabolism; it is your body's most meta-bolically active tissue. You can't lose with increased muscle and metabolism, unless you are referring to the loss of body fat. More muscle burns more calories, and a calorie is a unit of measurement that tells you how much energy a particular food provides to your body. Excess calories not needed as fuel are stored as fat. Continuing the same level of activity—or non-activity—will increase your ratio of body fat to muscle. You can reverse this process with proper exercise and sound eating habits.

Your body stores blood sugar, or glucose, in your bloodstream and also in your liver and muscles. Consume less sugar, and you will naturally reduce the glucose levels in your bloodstream, liver, and muscles. Your body will burn glucose, or blood sugar, its preferred energy source, before it starts to burn body lat. Exercise, along with proper nutrition, results in your body using fat as fuel more quickly during your workout.

Your muscles are always in a state of flux—growing and shrinking, For instance, dieters who don't get enough nutrition, namely protein, will experience muscle breakdown, particularly between meals. The faster the weight loss, the greater the loss of protein. Your body will adapt to the lower calorie intake and respond with a slower metabolism. Eventually, you will stop losing weight and your body composition will shift to a ratio of less muscle and more fat. You can break this unhealthy cycle. Weight training can restore muscle tissue that has been lost over the years; proper nutrition, especially the right amount of proteins (such as chicken, beef, fish, and eggs; and plant protein sources including various nuts and seeds, grains, vegetables, and legumes particularly soybeans) and complex carbohydrates (such as vegetables, oatmeal, potatoes, rice, and pasta), will help to build and protect your muscles. The quickest way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to build muscle, which, in turn, speeds up your metabolism.

Exercising with weights works to build muscle by forcing your body to heal the damage to muscle cells that your efforts create. Your muscles rebuild with protein to make the cells stronger. Exercising the large muscle groups, such as the gluteus, legs (hamstrings and quadriceps), chest (pectorals), and back, with progressively greater resistance has the most potential for restoring lean body weight and raising the metabolism, even hours after exercise. Aerobic exercise burns fat during exercise; on the other hand, anaerobic exercise, such as strength training, utilizes fat for hours after exercise.

You have to exercise to create an upward spiral of health, strength, and vigor. Your most powerful exercise strategy for optimal health must include a combination of weight training and aerobic exercise. While aerobic exercise serves to strengthen your heart and lungs, activities such as brisk walking, running, and swimming are not sufficient by themselves to prevent sarcopenia and muscular dystrophy. Only exercises with progressively challenging resistance will increase muscle mass, actually many of the symptoms of aging can be prevented or reversed by counteracting decreasing levels of natural human growth hormone (HGH), which plays an important role in the regulation of muscle mass, bone density, and metabolism. In addition to diet and sleep patterns, resistance training is probably the largest contributor to growth hormone release in case of muscular dystrophy.

The Physical Benefits of Exercise in Protecting you from Heart Disease, Hypertension and Stroke

Heart disease, hypertension, and stroke are all examples of cardiovascular disorders, and exercise protects against all three, and the physical benefits of exercise in protecting you from heart disease, hypertension and stroke are as below:—

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the America. Nearly twenty-six hundred Americans die of heart disease each day—that's one death every thirty-four seconds. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, since more than seventy million American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease, including thirteen million with coronary artery disease.

Faced with a near epidemic of coronary artery disease, researchers have identified a series of factors that increase risk. People can't do anything about three risk factors: having relatives with heart disease, being male, and growing older all indicate vulnerability. But other cardiac risk factors can be modified to help prevent heart attacks. Physical inactivity is one of the strongest harbingers of trouble. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have calculated that sedentary folks are nearly twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as physically active people. Exercise is the only remedy for inactivity, but can it also help correct other risk factors? In the case of seven of the nine remaining major factors, the answer is yes, and the researchers also found that bus drivers who sat behind the wheel all day were 30 percent more likely to develop heart disease than the conductors, whose work kept them walking the aisles and climbing the stairs.

Blood pressure seems mysterious to many people, and high blood pressure is a major heart attack risk factor. Actually blood pressure is really very simple. Your blood pressure is the force that propels blood through your arteries, and it depends on two factors: the strength of your heart's pumping action and the resistance in your body's arteries. Blood pressure readings seem no less obscure, but they are actually just as straightforward. Your doctor will measure two pressures with each blood pressure check. The higher number is your systolic blood pressure, the pressure in your arteries while your heart is actually pumping blood. But after each beat, your heart muscle relaxes and fills with blood to prime the pump for the next beat. Your diastolic blood pressure is the pressure in your arteries in the interval between heartbeats; it is the lower of the two readings. By convention, the systolic pressure is given first. For example, if your systolic blood pressure is 120 and your diastolic is 80, your doctor will tell you your reading is 120 over 80 and will record it in your chart as 120/80.

Doctors have been monitoring blood pressures for more than a century. It didn't take long for them to realize that hypertension is a major cause of heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure. Even so, three very important factors about blood pressure did not emerge until very recently. First, there is no "normal" blood pressure; instead, the risk of disease is continuously related to blood pressure across the entire range. Put simply, the higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk. Second, both your systolic and diastolic blood pressures are important. Finally, new studies show that the risk of heart attacks and strokes begins to rise with systolic pressures above 115, a reading that was long considered low normal.

When you exercise, your blood pressure goes up. But it comes down afterward, and many studies show that exercise training helps keep it down. The magnitude of benefit ranges from small to large in various studies, averaging perhaps a five-point drop in blood pressure. That may not seem like much, but it's enough to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke by 10 to 15 percent— without medication. And some studies even show that moderate exercise is better at lowering blood pressure than intense exercise.

Hypertension is an important disease in its own right, causing many cases of stroke and kidney failure and contributing to mental deterioration and visual impairment in many patients. About sixty-five million Americans, nearly one of every three adults, have hypertension, about fifty-nine million others have prehypertension, and around forty-seven thousand of us will die from high blood pressure every year in America, but the good news is that regular exercise can help prevent and treat high blood pressure. Exercise opens blood vessels, improves the arteries' ability to relax, lowers levels of stress hormones (such as adrenaline), and produces changes in hormones that govern the body's salt metabolism. The pressure-lowering effects of exercise are sustained for many hours after exercise, and people who maintain regular exercise schedules will continue to enjoy this benefit for many years. In addition, moderate exercise turns out to be at least as good as intense exertion. In some studies, in fact, less is actually more; for example, a nine-month trial of exercise in patients who had hypertension found that moderate exercise lowered average diastolic pressures by a very impressive 20 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury, the standard unit of blood pressure measurements), while intense exercise produced a drop of only 8 mm Hg. Hypertension is one of the many things that make No Sweat exercise right for you, remember that lower is better—and that regular exercise will help keep your pressure down.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States. About 700,000 Americans will have a stroke this year. Some 163,000 of those will die as a result, and countless others will suffer major long-term disabilities. Stroke and heart disease have much in common. Hypertension is a major cause of both, and many of the other heart disease risk factors also increase the risk of stroke. Since exercise protects against heart disease and high blood pressure, it should reduce the risk of stroke.

As compared to those who are sedentary, people who are physically active are about 34 percent less likely to suffer from strokes caused by bleeding into the brain and are about 21 percent less likely to have strokes caused by arterial blockages. And in the case of heart disease and high blood pressure, moderate physical exercise is very effective. In a Harvard study of 72,488 nurses, for example, walking was linked to a 34 percent reduction in stroke.

The Physical Benefits of Exercise in Strengthening Your Cardiovascular System

Although it is no bigger than your clenched fist, your heart is able to pump more than two thousand gallons of blood through sixty thousand miles of blood vessels each day. To do this, your heart beats more than one hundred thousand times each and every day of your life. Your heart is incredibly strong, but exercise training will make it stronger and more durable. A healthy heart pumps about five quarts of blood a minute while you are resting quietly. When you dash to make that bus, your heart rate may double or even triple, and the remarkable little muscle will pump out up to twenty quarts of blood a minute. Diseased hearts can't match this performance, but exercise-trained hearts can do much more. At maximum effort, an athlete's heart can pump up to forty quarts of blood a minute, and it can sustain a high workload for much longer than the unconditioned heart can.

How does regular exercise help your heart? Like your other muscles, your heart muscle gets larger and stronger with exercise. Exercise also makes the heart muscle more efficient, so it needs less oxygen for itself. Exercise training helps human hearts resist arrhythmias, including the abnormal pumping rhythms that can lead to sudden death. And moderate exercise will earn all of these heartfelt improvements for you.

For poets, the heart symbolizes emotion, for soldiers, courage, and for lovers, romance. But for physiologists, the heart is simply a pump. Its job is to pump oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood to all your body's tissues; your arteries provide the delivery system that makes it possible. Doctors used to think of arteries as passive conduits for blood, working for your body the way a garden hose works for your lawn. Wrong! In fact, arteries are complex structures with crucial regulatory functions, and they are in the front line of the battle for cardiovascular health.

Every artery has three layers in its wall. New research has focused on the inner layer, which is composed of a thin layer of endothelial cells that are in direct contact with the bloodstream. Endothelial cells have a crucial role in vascular health, and exercise training has an important effect on them. Among other things, endothelial cells produce nitric oxide, which has two crucial functions. It keeps the arterial lining smooth and slippery, preventing damaging inflammation and artery-blocking blood clots. In addition, it relaxes the smooth muscle cells of the artery wall's middle layer, preventing spasms and keeping arteries open. Even in health, age takes a toll on endothelial cells, reducing nitric oxide production so that arteries become stickier, stiffer, and narrower. Exercise training boosts nitric oxide production, keeping arteries supple and young. And here's more good news: you don't have to start young or push yourself hard to get these benefits. For example, when scientists from the University of Colorado studied healthy but sedentary men with an average age of fifty-three, they found that a walking program produced dramatic gains in endothelial function in just three months.

Exercise will help keep you and your heart and arteries young. It will also keep your heart and arteries healthy. The inner and middle layers of the artery wall are the battlegrounds of atherosclerosis, the disease responsible for heart attacks, most strokes, and many cases of kidney failure and for peripheral artery disease, which can lead to gangrene and amputations, usually in the legs and feet. As you'll soon see, exercise fights atherosclerosis, protecting you from heart attacks and strokes of many cardiovascular diseases.

The Benefits and Operating Tips of Barefoot Running Technique

There have been great deals of questions over the years as to regardless of whether barefoot running poses а much better benefit or more risk to runners, some runners said that barefoot running technique is very helpful and less traumatic for the runner.

Actually barefoot running technique has been going on for centuries, back in the day shoes were not common. Those that are proponents of barefoot operating claim that the human body has evolved over thousands of years to run with out shoes. Because of this, humans run most efficiently and with the proper technique when barefoot. When operating barefoot, the strike of the foot consistently lands at the forefront and then works its way to the heel while working with muscles to ease the force. Since running is a remarkable sport, then again it requires healthy feet and a healthy musculoskeletal system. When using modern shoes the strike of each step is concentrated onto the heel which puts a lot of stress onto both the muscles and bones, most runners lose their natural foot function and natural operating method. Barefoot running technique does not have those risks given that it does not go against the natural strike of the foot.

A runner who is running barefoot usually has their stride underneath their body. This means the ball of the foot strikes the ground even with or slightly behind the rest of the body. This takes a fantastic deal of pressure off of each strike to the ground and stride looks highly natural and simple. Landing on your heel with a dead straight leg sends an impact weighing twice your body-weight appropriate through your ankle, knee, and hip into your lower back - there is no shock absorber other than the joints it travels by means of. When you land on your mid-foot, your knee is slightly bent to absorb some of the effect into our calves and quads and away from our joints. If you take your shoes off and try a couple of hundred meters barefoot, you will plenty of likely discover that you not surprisingly start to run mid foot.

Barefoot running technique is also being an option to injured runners or runners with chronic injuries as they realize that are able to run again. Most ailments are caused from the shock our feet have to absorb each and every time the heel hits the ground, which lead to injuries and chronic pain. Running barefoot puts the pressure on the ball of the foot where it was meant to be as opposed to the heel exactly where a majority of runners land when wearing shoes. The ball of the foot was meant to be used as natural shock absorber. Run barefoot for a couple of yards and see if you land on your heels. Changes are you won't. In many countries, barefoot running is nevertheless the norm. Studies show that barefoot running is related with decrease cases of ankle sprains and strains, knee injuries and a lower instance of chronic decrease leg injury including shin splints.

If you try to use barefoot running technique, you're going to obviously, nearly automatically, adopt a barefoot running approach to safeguard your heel by landing on the forefoot. As compared to landing on the heel, landing on the front of the foot creates a smoother cycle of effect without having 1st spike of pressure. Runners who use a pattern of forefoot planting - with its moderate effect forces - have a reduced incidence of particular running-related injuries, such as sprained ankles, plantar fasciitis, and shin splints.

Due to this interest in barefoot running technique of shoe producers are today coming out with new shoes that simulate running barefoot. The most popular of which is Vibram Five Fingers. These shoes have thin rubber bottoms to defend your feet from harmful objects for instance sticks, glass, and rocks. They at the same time are including toe socks in that they have a place for each toe. This business enterprise's sole purpose is to offer you shoes that simulate barefoot activity. Some other shoe manufacturers that are making barefoot design shoes are New Balance, Nike, and Saucony. New Balance came out with their Minimus collection which is highly very same to five fingers in that it has highly small cushioning. Saucony's Kinvara line has a dropped sole to try to steer clear of heel striking. Nike's cost-free line has a segment sole which allows the foot to move freely but in spite of this maintains the cushioning, among them Vibram Five Fingers is the closest to operating barefoot running technique, and it readily gives protection with the rubber bottom.

How Often Should I Do Physical Exercise, and When Should I Do Physical Exercise Regularly?

In general, may people did less than one 30-minute session of moderate or vigorous exercise per week in America, actually you may find that it is more convenient and realistic to have a twenty- or thirty-minute workout each day, varying the muscle groups exercised so that all muscles arc addressed on a regular schedule. Or perhaps you would prefer a one-hour full-body routine every third day. You may maintain the status by exercising less frequently; however, exercising on a regular schedule encourages steady gains in muscle tone and strength.

It is imperative that you schedule daily physical exercise sessions to accomplish the toning, aerobic, and stretching exercises that will move you toward your fitness goals. Some physical trainers teach three one-hour muscle-toning classes each week at the parks. In addition, the goal is to perform forty-five to sixty minutes of aerobic exercise four to six days per week. You should establish discipline to accomplish your fitness goals. Schedule your workouts realistically, and then insist that you and other family members honor this time. A disciplined lifestyle recognizes that actions have consequences. Often, it is the difficult choices that propel you toward positive goals.

People are always wonder when the best time to do physical exercise is, and the physical trainers’ answer is always the same: the best time is whenever you have the time. That said, there are some advantages to working out at different times of the day. If you work out in the morning, your metabolism gets a boost that lasts throughout the clay, and you have more control over your time. If you work out in the afternoon or evening, your muscles and joints are warmed up and more flexible, and the exercise may be more relaxing. If not performed too close to your bedtime, it will help you to wind down. Another option is to split your workout into several sessions during the day.