Flexing Physical and Mental Muscles

If you have never exercised earlier and are a beginner to aerobics, your fitness diary may read:

Monday: Jogged for 10 minutes. Whew!

Tuesday: Body aches all over, Didn't jog today.

Wednesday: Still stiff. No jogging.

And so on.

Let us help you to flex your mental muscles on this physical condition. These minor aches and stiffness may persist for a few days. They are not to be moaned over, but to be celebrated. They are the heralders of good news trumpeted by your body.

They are telling you that your muscle groups, dormant all these years and rusty' due to disuse, are moving, are expanding contracting, 'are coming alive.

If you listen to your body, you will know that it is not telling you to stop exercising. Rather, it is urging you on to continue so that those formerly unused muscles can adapt, become more pliable. So that you stimulate the release of the synovial fluid - the body's lubricant which when drawn out, flows into your joints making them more flexible, more supple.

Your body is excited and asking you to go on so that it can regain the natural grace you were born with, It wants to become more flexible, more supple, so that your movements become brisk, more graceful. It wants you to rid it off any excess fat that may be depriving it of its natural birthright.

Your body's message comes loud and clear - exercise even if you are sore. So, what should you do? Swallow a painkiller? Rub balm on the sore points? No, if you do, your aches will be numbed or temporarily disappear. And in that span if you exercise too ,vigorously, you could injure your muscles since you cannot judge how sore they are.

Use those aches to measure how gingerly or slowly you should proceed. In fact, whether you have muscle soreness or not, start slowly, For example, if you choose walking as your aerobic activity, don't step out over-briskly.

For the first few minutes, walk at your normal pace. This stimulates blood to flow slowly into the muscles and warm them up until they are ready for a little more intensity. Then, increase your speed, if you are sore, proceed slowly. Your pulse rate may not reach its aerobic target zone on that day. It doesn't matter. Regard these first few days purely as conditioners.

If you experience a dull ache in the lower back, it could be due to poor posture. Improve your posture by following the tips in the next chapter ­How to flatten your stomach. The ache will disappear after a few days.

If any of your joints; are sore - your knees, your ankles, your hip joints, ­treat them tenderly. Walk slowly, never jog on a sore joint. These aches will disappear too as more synovial fluid is released and your muscles get conditioned.

But, don't let a little ache or stiffness stop you. You can rub balm at night before going to bed.

You may think that once you've finished your walk or jog you can fling yourself on the nearest bench and relax. Don't. Your muscles need cooling down as much as they need to warm-up. While you were walking briskly, your muscles were demanding more oxygen and receiving it. They were pumping blood vigorously, But they do not halt with your sudden halt. They continue to work at the same high level, If you stop abruptly the blood rushes on and could pool in your extremities.

This could make you feel light-headed or faint. To avoid this discomfort, lessen your pace, stroll around for a few minutes. This gives your muscles time to adjust to the slower pace and cool down. Now, you can sink into that seat.

People who experience light-headedness attribute it to ''weakness due to over-exertion." And to avoid this "weakness", they walk slower, or not at all the next day. It's not weakness they are experiencing, but a faintness brought about by over-warmed muscles still working at a swift pace. A cool-down as we have suggested leaves you fresh, not fatigued after your workout.

Though we have taken walking as an examples, the slow-start and slow­ finish principle should be followed for all aerobic workouts.

Fitness - Hungry For What

Hunger pangs are difficult to resist, You have changed your lifestyle, you are into the new reality, you know you have undertaken the fitness journey to health. Yet, those hunger pangs, that craving, that feeling of emptiness does return occasionally. There is nothing wrong in giving in to them once in a while. Some fitness books even give you a splurge list where you can eat anything you want on a weekend and count your calories the rest of the week. We are not sure how effective this program is.

In actual fact, it is your mental dynamo going back into time and making yet another connection.

Since childhood, you have always associated hunger with food. Your howling in infancy magically made a bottle full of milk appear at your lips. Later, you were always called for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner. with a well­ meant remark like, "You must be hungry." At a picnic, you were often asked, "Hungry?

Mental dynamics play an important role in the hunger syndrome. The mind is a teeming mass of senses. A certain situation triggers off a sense and identifies it with an object. For example, you will always identify fear with a ghost, beauty with a rose, heat with fire and so on. Once the identification is made, the mind sticks to it. It narrows itself not leaving room for choices. Yet, choices are, ever present. If you have a minor cut on your finger, it will throb as long as you pay attention to it. But if at that moment, your neighbour rings your doorbell and exclaims, "There is a fire in the next building!" you will forget your pain. That is because your mind has got distracted and seized another point of interest.

Thus, sights, sounds, touch, are the media of the mind to make the abstract into concrete. Which is why most people turn away from an abstract painting saying, "I can't make sense of it." Only when there is an identification does the mind acknowledge it as real.

The mind also has the ability to be in two time zones at the same -time due to the memory-bank in the brain. You will find couples identifying a musical composition as their 'special song' since they had danced to it years ago in their courting days. In those few moments, they are twenty ­year-olds again gazing into each others eyes.

It is the all-powerful mind that decides your reflexes. Which is why you identify an abstract feeling of hunger with items like food. The mind has made the association and sticks to it grimly through the years.

Your mental dynamics can play a key role here. Suppose you could give. your mind something else to chew upon, suppose you could widen your mind's horizon, suppose you could now set a new trend in the process of identification, of association. You can do all these by asking, "Hungry for what?' The choices are limitless. Hungry for company. Hungry for work. Hungry for exercise. Bullseye! You've got something going for you there! Most often, hunger is only an abstract state. Eliminate food from your mind's concrete list. And you've got a whole new fitness philosophy working for you!

Try it. The next time you feel "hungry" tell yourself it is your body hungering for exercise. After 20 minutes of working out, your appetite will have disappeared. Practise it until it becomes a part of your mental dynamics. You will be surprised how easy it is once you make a habit of it.

There is much more to this process than banishing your appetite. Once you are able to change the process of identification, you will be flooded with an awareness of your mental powers. You will be able to guide your thinking, your reflexes into new channels. You will be freeing yourself from set old patterns that don't work for you. You will create newer vistas.

It is fascinating because the possibilities are endless. It is fulfilling because with your new realities you can be the eternal explorer - stretching your boundaries, going beyond existing limits. You will be able to set your talent in a new direction.

You will discover a whole new world. New paths. New maps. New destinations. The best part is that it will be all inside you, starting from you. And for that reason, they will work for you. In short, your mental dynamics are always at your service - they can be tuned for you. To help you grow. And, as we said at the outset, isn't that your mission?

To grow as an individual. And never having to stop?

Fitness - Your Mind And You

Your mental dynamo has assimilated several facts and whirled out two simple messages - aerobic exercising and fatless food are vital for healthy living. The sleeper in you is awakening and your - ears can now catch that soft inner voice calling out insistently -urging you to act.

Now, you know how much you should exercise to keep your body vibrantly fit.

Now, you know how to reduce fat and sugar intake to tune your body into health.

Let us presume that you are striding along the fitness path. It is possible that you have not yet begun to feel its positive effects. You could be into fitness but your mind has still not wholly adjusted to a life without butter, ghee or chocolates. You may explain it with, "I feel full but not satisfied."

In reality, your body and brain are awakening. The fresh breeze of fitness is breathing life into the long-dormant muscles, blowing away the cobwebs of lethargy. But you are not able to see these changes, you are not able to experience these transformations. Why? Your mind still has a little cloud in it, obscuring your view. It is a cloud called memory Due to its power, it is still holding on to old habits, old tastes. It is your memory that is feeding your mental dynamo, Your memory has no analytical powers. It is merely a reservoir of your experiences. And it does its duty by pouring its contents into your mental dynamo.

Now, it is up to your mental dynamo to collect, to sift, to analyse. For no more are the shining jewels of fitness buried inside you. They stand revealed. And if it rises to the occasion and informs you that you need not always drink an artificially sweetened cola that rushes through you causing as much damage as dirty, polluted water; if it informs you that you are free to drink unlimited fresh coconut water from the eternal fountain of fitness, and if you can listen to this pure, health-giving message and let it deluge your insides, you will have entered the wonderful world of health and fitness.

Your mental dynamo can make you see this world that is yours as a birthright a land of happiness, laughter, love, humour. Then you would begin to understand that it is not a complex labyrinth of do's and don'ts but a natural state that is so simple, so straight-forward that you are now astonished that you had not glimpsed it earlier.

But there is a reason why you had not seen it earlier. It starts from your childhood. When you were born, you were content to drink milk. But as you grew up, 'kindly' visitors handed you slabs of chocolate. Your larder was stocked with fried crunches. Your refrigerator showed rows of gleaming soft drink bottles. You learned to love these goodies. Your taste­ buds were weaned on them, Your memory bank stored all these experiences. And nobody told you that time that all these 'goodies' were actually not good for you.

But had those 'kindly' visitors presented you with baskets of fresh fruit, had your refrigerator contained coconut water and fresh sliced vegetables, your taste buds would have cultivated such preferences. Your memory bank would have stored such experiences. And to day you would not have had any excess fat or disease, Today, you would not be bewildered at being told not to eat fried foods or sweets.

On the exercising front - as a child it was natural that you played, ran, hopped, skipped, pedalled on your tricycle and bicycle. But as you grew up, your habits changed. You travelled by car, bus, train, airplane. Meanwhile, you - continued to eat your fattening food. Due to your lifestyle - unnatural though it was - your mental dynamo too whirled in this orbit. And you accepted everything as part of life - the overeating, the non ­exercising, the consequent illnesses. But it is never too late to unlearn the old and learn the new.

However, before we go on, let us be practical, Let us see things in perspective. We are all citizens of today's world. We are going to use all the modern conveniences. We don't intend going back to the Stone Age or even the Bullock Cart Age. Our social infrastructure, our lives are such that they don't really encourage the natural lifestyle that our ancestors had. Yet, in these changed circumstances, we want to be healthy, to be fit. We want to savor all the joys of modern civilisation. So, what should we do?

All action begins with thought. As we said earlier, open your mind. Only this way, will you see the glorious possibilities that a healthy life holds out for you. Feed your mental dynamo with new information, new thought ­processes, new tastes. Let those old memories remain in your-subconscious - tingling pleasantly. You've had more than your share of sweets of ghee, and laziness. Now you are ready for a higher plane.

There is limitless energy within you, limitless vitality that needs to be tapped. And mental dynamics, dear friend, is your path to health and happiness, to reduce your obsession with food and trigger off a vast appetite for life.

Ladder of Fitness

Of course, your ideal weight depends on your individual build. If you refer to it ,you have an approximate idea of what you should aim for.

The four rungs to fitness

The + 5 kg rung: If you are overweight by 5 kg or more, you are within finger-touching distance of the fitness rung. Obviously, your food intake is not excessive. All you need to do is exercise. Use those legs to burn away the excess fat and grasp the top rung.

The +6-12 kg rung: If you are overweight by 6 to 12 kg, work out more, eat less fat. Modify your 'mighty' meals. You could cut off red meat and chomp on lean, mean cuts. Simultaneously, get your legs going. It figures that with less fat entering your body, your muscles will work at fueling the remaining fat for energy. So, switch on the fat-burners and watch them cleave into the fat zones!

The +13-23 kg rung: If you are 13 to 23 kg overweight cut out all red meats, fries and sweets. Do not splurge on weekends. And whip up your leg muscles into fat-burning activity, These vital immediate steps will help you climb up to the higher + 6-12 kg rung... +5 kg rung and finally... victory!

The + 24 kg or more rung: If you are overweight by 24 kg or more, it would be wise to consult your doctor. No, do not panic. The good doctor is sure to prescribe a daily brisk walk and a fatless, sugar-free diet. Follow his prescribed path - you can't go wrong. Start walking. Or swimming. Or stationary cycling. Score your required run-rate per week.

Do not got caught in that vicious spiral- where you want to exercise but do not feel energetic enough to start. Where you find it easier to overeat and add on more kg. that saps you even more. This way you will feel utterly hopeless both physically and mentally. And hate yourself. Harsh self­condemnation is itself like an overdose of fatty food - pretty near impossible to digest which is why it takes up all your mental energy and leaves none for positive physical action.

Take a vital decision right away - decide to be your own best friend, give yourself a daily dose of unconditional love. Gift yourself with a swim or a walk -every day. Don't stop after the first or second day. Don't deprive yourself of that gift - it is yours for a lifetime.

You see, your body houses the brain and its five senses - its raw data that can be easily triggered into positive channels. You channelise it by moving your legs. Don't expect immediate results but be content to know that those miraculous changes are materialising in your body. Initially, your muscles will strengthen themselves, then they will start their work- burning the fat.

It is important you don't give up at this point. Forget your weighing scales. Give your muscles time. And, one day, that great feeling will strike you. You may not have reached anywhere close to your 'ideal' weight, but your kick-hormone and happy- feetings hormone would have begun rising inside you. You won't feel their positive effects if you are mentally tuned into your old negative feelings. Negative thoughts block positive ones. Stop thinking about yourself. Then, it can happen any time while "bathing, walking, watching TV, listening to music. reading, anything... Suddenly, you will feel tranquil. A sense of peace win descend upon you. You will be literally able to feel your inner self, your inner mind smiling. It is those hormones at work. Hold on to that tranquility - its your body telling you that the fitness path has opened and you are walking on it.

These are not exaggerations to coax you into exercising. We have been on that path ourselves. And those calm feelings have suddenly swept through us at the most unexpected of times. Share them with your spouse, sibling or friend. They are an important part of you. They are you. For Nature meant you to be fit and tranquil. And to think, that all these great, indescribably delightful feelings begin with your legs! In fact, you will reach a point where you won't feel your day is complete without your walk. Your brain is now used to living on that, 'high', it will silently propel you to seek out that level. Yes, fitness is addictive, but the best addiction to be afflicted by! You can be sure of one thing.

The reward of fitness is yours'. You've got a lifetime to get fit. All you require is persistence. Don't pause to think. Get out of yourself. Just keep on at it and your patience will be rewarded, For as you gradually climb up the fitness ladder and progress from one rung to the next, you will discover the magic in you of being fit and forever free.

Will your New Year's Fitness Resolution Fail this Year?

Many people make their New Year's resolution to become super fit but fail to achieve their goal because of the obstacles they encounter.

When people think seriously about getting fit one of the first things they think of is attending a gym. Now this is fine, but just getting yourself to a gym involves time and trouble. Typically you need to get your training clothes ready, travel to the gym, park, wait to use the equipment, shower, change and then travel back home.

After a while many people reach the conclusion that all this just takes up too much time and their fitness dreams are dashed. If you could have a training facility in your home, however, all of the time that you waste going to and from a gym would be saved and you could spend more time in pursuance of your goal i.e getting fit.

An exercise treadmill provides the perfect facility for exercising at home. Running and walking are the most pleasurable and natural forms of exercising and build up stamina, help reduce weight and promote overall good health. The fact that you can indulge in this exercise in the peace, comfort and security of your own home by exercising on a treadmill is a huge bonus.

A key point to remember with regard to achieving your fitness goals with treadmill training is that the probability of you continuing with your fitness regime will be high. You are not subject to the vagaries of the weather and you can even watch the TV or listen to your favorite music at the same time.

When looking for a suitable home treadmill it is a good idea to steer clear of some of the cheaper products that you often see in the fitness sections of many department stores. Many of these budget models are lacking in quality and may see you looking at a repair bill in a short space of time.

Setting a goal to become fit is a major personal commitment and buying a treadmill for most of us is a major financial commitment, so buy wisely. When looking for a suitable treadmill try looking at some of the treadmill reviews which provide independent reviews, ratings, and pricing information for most models.

Sites such as www.treadmilladviser.com will also provide online assistance from a fitness equipment expert to help guide you through your decision making process.

The first thing to consider when buying a treadmill is how it will be used. Will just one person be using the treadmill or many? Will these users be using the treadmill for walking, jogging, running or incline training?

Do not make the mistake of buying a cheap department store bargain and hope that it will meet the needs of your wife who just needs it for some gentle walking and your daughter who belongs to an athletics club and needs it for running. One size does not fit all here.

The next thing to decide upon is your budget. As stated earlier, for most people a treadmill is going to be a major investment so you need to spend wisely. A good quality treadmill should provide you with many years of use and will pay you back many times over in terms of overall fitness, healthy weight control and just sheer pleasure! As with most things in life you get what you pay for, so set your budget accordingly.

Another factor to consider is the weight of the heaviest person who will use the treadmill. Most treadmill review sites will include this in their product write ups and is usually shown as the maximum "user weight" for the treadmill. It is important to pay attention to this as the "maximum user weight" is stated for a good reason. If you weigh 300lbs do not buy a treadmill that has a maximum user weight of 250lbs and expect it to perform as it should for very long!

Give some consideration as to where you will locate your treadmill in your home. If you are fortunate to have a room where the treadmill can enjoy exclusive use then this will not be a problem but, if you intend to place it in a lounge then you may be interested in a "space saver" or folding treadmill.

These can be folded up into an upright position when not in use and so occupy a much smaller floor space. There are now available "ultra compact" treadmills that are highly portable and can be stowed under a bed or inside a closet when not in use. The Smooth 4.25 treadmill is an example of this type of treadmill.

Walking and running although excellent ways of exercising can produce stress on the feet and joints. For this reason you should look at treadmills with a good quality shock absorption system. Some treadmills now have quite sophisticated shock absorption systems. The Smooth 9.35HR treadmill for example uses a "Hydra suspension" system that be adjusted to the preferences of individual users.

Many treadmills have a bewildering array of electronic features to attract buyers. These include displays that measure calories used to the amount of energy expended in a fitness workout. Look for features that can stimulate and motivate.

The iFIT system developed by ICON fitness and installed in many popular makes including ProForm, HealthRider and Nordic Track allows the actions of the treadmill including the speed and incline elevation to be controlled by software programs that have been designed by professional fitness instructors. Other popular features include user ID's that can be customized and record past fitness workouts. The ProForm iLOG 500 is a treadmill that has this facility.

Of course selecting then buying your treadmill is only the start. The key to keeping fit is implementing a workout routine, get started and keep going. You'll find that after a month, your treadmill fitness session will become part of your normal routine and you will be well on your way to achieving your New Year's fitness goals!

The Lazy Persons Guide To Perfect Health

Being healthy does not necessarily mean you have to spend hours a day in the gym and plan out each days meals to the last grain of rice on your plate. Obtaining a healthy body could be fun and hassle-free. In fact that is exactly the way it should be.

It is important to note that being healthy does not only consist of looking good on the outside. You can have a great body and still be on the brink of a heart attack. In order to be truly healthy three criteria need to be covered: mind, body and spirit.

This article only covers the “body” section of this important triad.

The Body:
Ever have a resolution to start building a body everyone on the beach will stare at with wonderous awe only to lose that initial drive and will power within a week or two? You most certainly must have otherwise you probably would not be reading this lazy guide right now!

Why does that initial will to succeed in building a great body dissipate just as suddenly as it began? The answer is simply this: Eventhough exercise makes you feel good and all those feel-good endorphins are released while you are working out, the body just was not designed to undergo extended periods of day in and day out torture.

A diet that does not support your new found will for hitting the gym is also a major contributor to you feeling listless and depleted after a couple of days.

So now I have told you everything you should not to and I have not been very helpful towards reaching your goals, have I!

Here, listed for your convenience, are the steps you could follow to create a new, good looking and energetic you:

1) There is a saying about what you eat walks today walks around tomorrow. This is one of those simple truths that everyone seems to overlook. This does not mean sticking to a strict diet that is so time consuming you do not even have time to enjoy your new found self. Here is the best part – You do not even have to give up meat to achieve this.

Here is what you do: Make your hands into fists and put them together. This is how much you can eat in a single meal without overdoing it. Half of your meal (about one fists worth) should be protein – Steak, mince, fish, chicken or basically any other type of meat or protein source you like. The other half of your meal should include healthy carbohydrates otherwise you will feel depleted after a day or two. This includes rice or potatoes or something along those lines. Remember it is not healthy anymore when it is fried in oil, so make sure you bake that potato!

Ideally you should get yourself a steam cooker as this is the healthiest, easiest way to cook a meal. You simply add your meat and potato and some spices, steam for 20 – 30 minutes and enjoy a great tasting, healthy meal.

2) Do not exceed the above described quantity per meal as this is the amount your body can successfully process in about two hours time. If you are hungry within 2 – 3 hours of having your last meal it is time to congratulate yourself, because this means that metabolism of yours has just been kick-started and is working at 110%. Award yourself by eating another meal as described above.

I am kidding, right? How can you keep eating but keep losing unwanted weight. This is probably the most mind-boggling trick bodybuilders use to build massive bodies full of muscle yet have percentages of bodyfat well below 10%.

If you keep eating this way you can eat 5 – 8 meals a day while still shedding fat. That means never going hungry again to lose weight and no more crash diets. Crash dieting actually tells your body there is a food scarcity and it should therefore preserve all fat for the future. That is why you lose 10 pounds on a crash diet and then gain 15 when you start eating again, and lets face it – you have to start eating again sometime. This also explains why you can lose weight while eating 5 – 8 healthy meals per day.

3) If you are a working person preparing healthy meals each day can be real difficult. This does not mean you can not still get your dream body. Visit your nearest nutritional store and ask for a meal replacement shake. Explain your lifestyle to the knowledgeable person assisting you and they will give you the perfect meal replacement shake for your specific needs. These shakes are probably one of the greatest inventions for a healthy body ever created – They can be made with water, taste like milkshakes and contain all the vitamins and minerals your body needs from a meal and do not contain any unhealthy fats. Imagine that – you get to drink a milkshake that makes you lose weight.
Do however not totally replace solid foods in your diet however convenient this may be, because your digestive system needs some solid stuff to process from time to time.

4) Get yourself a multivitamin. These contain all the vitamins your body needs and usually comes in a tablet form. You take one in the morning and presto – Your body will be working at maximum efficiency to get rid of toxins so you should soon have so much energy you will feel and probably look 10 years younger. You will also get sick less often.

5) Do some cardio. You have to get your heart going once in a while. This will help for better blood circulation and stop you from getting a heart attack.

Cardio does not need to involve hours of jogging until you puke, you just need to know when to do it.

As soon as you get up in the morning, drink a glass of water only and go for a walk around the block. Enjoy the scenery while your body burns the pounds away. You do not have any food in your stomach at this time so your body is burning pure fat for energy. All this amounts to just 10 minutes of effort two or three days each week. If you do not like walking outside you may want to consider buying a treadmill. If you are on a tight budget, just get a platform about 15 inches high and do step-ups in front of the television. If you have a partner in health you can take up a hobby like golf or squash.

6) Do weight training on occasion. Contrary to popular belief you will not look like Arnold Swartzeneggar in a week ladies (Looking like that takes years of careful planning, dieting, exercising and a lot of dedication!).

Weight training is a great way of getting a lean, tight body by isolating and burning off the fat in specific targeted areas.

7) Make sure you drink lots of water. Water is natures little magic potion. When taken into consideration that our bodies are made up mostly of water, it makes sense to say that lots of fresh water needs to be taken in for our bodies to stay healthy and function at an optimum level of efficiency.

These are just some of the steps you can take to a healthier, happier life.