Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

This is one of the most important benefit of exercise: it makes us feel good.

Sure there are the long-term benefits like lowering blood pressure, improved strength and endurance, a trimmer physique and the confidence that follows, increasing mental alertness, and reducing your odds of cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But exercise simply makes us feel good.

Two primary chemicals involved in making exercise feel good are cortisol and endorphins.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body under stress, such as anger, anxiety or fear, and it ultimately inflames and damages our organs. Exercise burns cortisol, and thereby makes us healthier and happier.

Endorphins are morphine-like hormone molecules that enter the brain’s neurons and park on receptors that normally send pain-signaling molecules back to other parts of the brain. Some say endorphins are even more powerful and yield a more euphoric feeling than opiate drugs such as morphine and opium, which park on the same receptors when introduced to the body.

Exercise stimulates the brain’s pituitary gland to release endorphins, an abbreviation for endogenous (meaning “produced within”) morphine, in the bloodstream.

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Even with a stagnant gym membership or so-so discipline, individual episodes of intense exercise provides psychological boosts aside from the harder-to-see, harder-to-acquire physical and disease-fighting benefits of exercise.

A single exercise session lasting 20 or 30 minutes at 80 percent of your capacity brings on pain-relieving endorphins, according to work by Robert G. McMurray of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Even one session makes you feel better and clears your head. Once you make a commitment to exercise then you are motivated to keep feeling good every day. After about two weeks of exercise you stay on course.

I truly find exercising as one way to de-stress and clear my mind. After only one hour of exercising, I feel relaxed. Having a nice hot shower and steam bath after the exercise at the gym adds more to the calm state of mind. Not only my muscles are at-ease, but also it helps to clear the worries of the day.

However, it is also important to keep varying the exercise, as our body easily adapts to hormones (endorphins and cortisol) over time. It is important to realize that routine deadens the heart, and you have to change up your exercise regimen. The body always adapts and you need to challenge it. So, vary the intensity, cross train, take dance classes, try a new sport, use a personal trainer for a few sessions, etc. Keep it fresh, and you will get that high!

Very neurotic men die sooner than those who mellow down.

People with a heavy dose of neuroticism do not handle stress well, and are often anxious and moody. Such negativity has been linked to increased mortality in a number of studies headed by Purdue University psychologist Daniel Mroczek.

In the study by Dr. Mroczek, those who increased over time in neuroticism was a ticket to an early grave. In other words, these men–all middle age or older to begin with–did not grow old gracefully. They likely got more and more stressed, worried or fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease.

The good news is that men with a fretful temperament, if they managed for whatever reason to calm down a bit over time and handled stress well, had survival rates similar to those of emotionally stable men.

What can be advised to all of us then: Be cool!

Here are some tips to stay cool and how to handle stress:

1. Give yourself a break. Remember to take time out for family, fun and relaxation. All work and no play makes Jack a neurotic man, and die younger

2. Eat healthy food, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. It helps to workout and exercise, not only physically but also emotionally. I find myself being in a relaxed state of mind, while running in perspiration. Science has proven the release of the “relaxing” hormones like endorphins during exercise.

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3. Talk things out. If you’re worried or under pressure, share it with a close friend, family member, professional counsellor, or clergy man.

4. Set realistic goals for your life, and watch how you will spend your resources. Live within your means. Sometimes money matters and overspending keeps the stress level too high.

5. Do something for someone else; it will help get your mind off your own troubles. Volunteer around the house or in the community.

6. Learn new skills, just like painting, or even blogging! Keep your mind stimulated and active. It helps me de-stress by writing this blog about stress.

It is an amazing attitude display, by a NASA flight engineer Suni Williams when she completed a Boston marathon in space. Eventhough she is out there in space, she is committed to complete the run on a treadmill instead. She was already qualified to run in the 26.2-mile Boston race, before knowing that she will be stuck in the international space station on running day (April 16, 2007).

Williams, an accomplished marathoner, hopes her unique run will serve as an inspiration.

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That feat really is an inspiration! She serves as an inspiration to those who ran from below, on the grounds in Boston. And so am I. I am really inspired to see someone going on against obstacles and distractions in order to accomplish his/her goal. I am more inspired to see her in outer space getting to exercise and prepare for the actual run, and more so completing the actual run itself. That is tremendous motivation on her part.

Regular exercise is essential to maintaining bone density while in space for astronauts. “In microgravity, both of these things start to go away because we don’t use our legs to walk around and don’t need the bones and muscles to hold us up under the force of gravity,” Williams said.

No one knows that better than Steve Hart. For two years, he’s been Williams’ flight surgeon. “There are specific challenges to staying healthy while in space. Sunita wants to make fitness the hallmark of her expedition stay. She wants to educate and motivate others about being physically fit in general.”

She is a role model for us to follow. In fact, I am now motivated to have a run on the treadmill! Though its not as exciting as the run from space :). I guess some imagination will do the trick and some space-sounding music ?

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Today I would like to focus on how to do the Bicep Curl properly. I sometimes see guys in the gym doing it wrongly, and me too, I’m guilty of not exercising in proper form sometimes.

It is always helpful to see someone doing it properly, rather than reading it from a procedure.

So I put in here a workout video of Frank Sepe, demonstrating the bicep curls.

Proper Execution:

1. Hold a pair of dumbbells at arms’ length by your sides, thumbs pointing forward.
2. One arm at a time, curl the dumbbell up toward your shoulder, rotating your hand so palm faces upward.
3. Lower the dumbbell back down, and repeat the opposite arm.

Tips on doing Bicep Curls:

• Keep your elbows close to your body, use your biceps to curl the dumbbell slowly up to your chin
• Don’t sway back your back or rock your body for momentum, this will not train your bicep properly, but your back is also giving it some help.
• Hold for a second at the end of the lift, then lower the dumbbell slowly with a controlled motion to starting position. Do not swing the weight.

Learn the proper form for other exercises on main website Video Workouts.

Keep on exercising, enjoy!

There are a number of reasons why we prefer to exercise at home, rather than working out on a gym. It is time-saving as well as cost-saving, you will cut down on travel time and gym membership fees.

But what does it take to exercise right at your own home? Will you get the same fitness benefits, or reach your fitness goals just the same? For some who has complete set of equipment (dumbbells, barbells of different weights, treadmill, etc.) yes, it could be. It would be more expensive initially but it will have longer benefits in the long run.

The downside is you will miss the social opportunities to meet other people face to face, who has the same interest with you of keeping fit. It will be a great motivation looking at other people, exerting effort to lift that weight so you will do the same; plus of course, seeing the opposite sex who is really attractive and it keeps your blood flowing high

The most important is, if you are just starting out to workout or on a new routine at home, you must have a guidance from a spotter or personal trainer who will show you how to correctly perform an exercise. Not keeping a proper form will lead to injuries, so for safety, it is best to have a spotter or a friend working out with you, to check on proper form when exercising and giving you motivation.

At home, a friend, wife/husband or workout partner could be available, but most of the time, this is not possible and you will be exercising alone.

Instructional videos are helpful in these case, so you can see the proper form of exercising and follow on; for example, on how to properly do a bicep curl, and you can imitate and see in a mirror if you are doing the same. I find this as effective method, since I enjoy the privacy and at the same time concentrating on the exercise. It is also motivating to workout when seeing somebody on video, as if he/she is exercising with you.

Check out the Workout videos at http://healthandfitness-secrets.com/greatworkouts.html for more information. Get motivated to exercise and keep fit, right at the comfort of your home.