There are two kinds of stress, "good" stress and not so good stress. A certain amount of stress, physically certainly is necessary in training and some would say that mental stress has its place in modern day life in that it "keeps you sharp" or motivates you. These are of course lower and manageable levels of stress, not the levels of stress which can cause or contribute to illnesses and even, studies suggest, a shortening of your life span.
Across the internet, magazines and fitness blogs you will hear people telling you that coffee is bad, or at least that coffee is bad if you have too much of it. There's that pesky caffeine, which at higher levels may, rather than give you the edge that you need be something that leaves you jittery. And those are the good points apparently. Realistically a few cups of your favourite coffee is not necessarily a bad thing at all, and a little of what you fancy most definitely does you good.
What is endurance? Endurance is being able to do something for a period of time, usually an extended period and yet still be able to recover in a reasonable time. Just one example of an endurance event could be long distance running. Naturally your endurance level is seen to go hand in hand with your health level, mostly because being able to endure physical activity at a certain level for extended periods is associated with having good heart health, or cardiovascular health and fitness.
Nutritionists, health and fitness experts and many more interested parties have long-since debated whether cutting down or eliminating meat from our diets is the best choice for our short and long term health. As it turns out there are pros and cons to both plant-based diets and meat including ones. One of the main problems with the modern diet is the reliance on too many refined carbs, processed foods, artificial ingredients and a lack of adequate fruit and vegetable portions.
The chances are that you've heard the phrase "eight glasses a day" more times than you can actually remember. In actual fact, while it is good to have a goal of some sort to stick to research suggests that this standard amount might not be "right". If not eight glasses though, how much should you be drinking?
Generally speaking the less healthy and fit you are the longer it will take your body to recover, particularly after exercise. While a sweeping statement such as this does not necessarily fit everyone's specific recovery rates it tends to be the general way of things. With this in mind it makes sense for people to improve their fitness levels in order to recover quicker (and better). Some believe that a break from working out is best for optimal recovery which is not always correct. I find that recovery is often an after-thought for many in training as it gets in the way of whatever training timetable they have in place and goals they have in mind.
Move over lotions and potions, the best way to slow down and manage the natural process of aging is to look to your diet and how you choose to live your life. Overall a well-balanced diet, decent activity levels, cleaner eating and similar are what you need to be looking at, alongside adding these foods into your diet for maximum anti-aging power. Packed with nutrients and proven to keep you younger for longer from the inside out why wouldn't you enjoy them?
There are many reasons to adopt and enjoy a low carb (read as low carb NOT no carb) diet. What some are concerned about however is that with the proven popularity of the low carb diet has arrived a high protein diet to "compensate" for the loss of the energy carbohydrates offer. Could too much protein be bad for your health?
It would certainly seem that giving / donating blood could be beneficial to your health as well as to the health of others. This isn't the reason the majority of people who visit their blood bank or similar donate, with the usual motivation being to give a little back and to do their bit. That said it does seem that as well as your blood donation helping as many as three people in need it can also benefit your own health.
How long you are able to sustain an activity at a suitable level (while being able to recover from it fairly easily) is what is referred to as your endurance level. Endurance levels are built up via those dedicated to training (particularly maintaining a higher level of cardiovascular fitness) and those with overall optimum health and well-being levels. What trainers like me are seeing however are individuals working in the wrong way to build that endurance, often running the risk of causing real damage to themselves. There are better ways!
It seems ridiculous that working "too hard" can be your downfall when you are trying to burn off stubborn fat. Think for a moment though; have you really pushed all of the boundaries, followed your diet to the calorie, increased your intensity across the board and yet still not managed to get rid of fat in those hard to burn, easy to see/feel places? It really might be that you are trying too hard.
It is common knowledge that eating the right foods and exercising the right way are both key to losing weight, toning up and overall enhancing your health. What if I could tell you there was another trick that would help you boost your fat burning processes? It doesn't cost you money, it isn't a fad an what's more it works..... cold therapy! Cold therapy (applying ice or cold) isn't as grueling as it might sound and there are a number of benefits.
While the UK is at best unseasonably warm right now there's every reason to expect the temperatures to start dropping soon. For many that's when the running routine tends to go out of the window. If you're determined to keep going but need some tips keep on reading: Change Your Tracking. Many of us runners track our distances over the course of a week.
Weight loss isn't the be all and end of all of being healthy and meeting training goals. The weight you see on the scales takes into account your fat certainly but also muscle and water (which makes up the majority) and therefore isn't necessarily the figure you want or need when working out your fat burning goals / plan of action! If you want to shift fat then you ned to be taking actions that will eliminate the excess fat, not training to lose weight. Yes you may lose some fat during a weight loss programme however not necessarily as much as you'd like as fat can be stubborn and doesn't like to be shed so easily.
For many years the traditional sit-up or crunch has been high on people's lists as the go-to exercises for defined abs, particularly in media. Trainers however have also long-since been trying to change this popular opinion as not only are these exercises not necessarily as helpful as you'd believe they may also be harmful. Surely personal trainers are wrong on this? After all crunches and sit ups have been popular since the forties? Keep reading and make up your own mind.
There are so many different benefits to so many different foods, vitamins, minerals and so on. Did you know that some are directly responsible for protecting and even improving your eyesight? Don't take your eyesight health for granted as once it starts to fail it can be a slippery slop and decreased vision is no joke. While this may occur naturally as part of the aging process when you can strengthen your eyesight and prevent decline there's no reason not to. It's all in the nutrients!
If you were to run a survey which asks people which part of them they would most like to see toned or reduce the chances are the majority would point to their stomach. Men and women alike are looking for a more defined abs look and to reduce or eliminate that belly fat. Many people believe that in order to burn that fat off and work on defining their abs you need to be doing crunches, sit ups and similar stomach focused exercises.
HIIT training seems to be the fairly commonly-used and certainly the more popular training technique of many these days however rather than it being another fitness fad HIIT offers a wealth of benefits. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is as the name suggests working to a high intensity, however there is some confusion on how to define high intensity. Rather than giving it a specific value it is important to remember that what is high intensity for one person may not be for another.
We are what we eat (apparently) as well as ourgenetics define our success in training to meet health and fitness goals according to some "experts". In that case why do we bother? We bother because we have more control over your life that these findings would suggest, something that is backed up by the study of epigenetics. Those knowledgeable about genetics and all things cell-related will tell you that epigenetics is the study of (in basic terms) how environmental factors can alter genes (effectively activating them and switching them off) and more.
Nuts have featured heavily in many diets as the years have gone on, offering a quick energy boost and being hailed as a significantly healthier snack than some alternatives. This is fine however a snack portion and really going at the nuts are two different things. Have you ever, after a nut binge, found that your digestive system seems to be sluggish (at best), and that perhaps your stomach seems upset with you?