Daily exercise 'may prolong life'

Chi-Pang Wen of Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes and Jackson Pui Man Wai of the National Taiwan Sport University looked at more than 400,000 people who took part in a medical screening programme between 1996 and 2008. The volunteers were then followed for eight years on average.

Compared with individuals who said they were physically inactive, people who were in a group of "low-volume" exercise had a 14-percent reduced risk of premature death from all causes, and a 10-percent reduced risk of death from cancer.

The "low volume" category applied to people whose total amount of exercise of all kinds averaged 92 minutes per week, or about 15 minutes a day.

On average, their life expectancy was three years longer than inactive counterparts.

The benefits applied to all ages and to both sexes and are roughly equivalent in health impact to a successful campaign to discourage smoking, say the authors, who publish their work online in The Lancet.

Separately, researchers in Australia found that watching TV or videos for an average of six hours a day could shorten the viewer's life expectancy by almost five years.

The investigators used data from a cross-sectional survey of 11,000 Australian adults who were aged at least 25 at the turn of the millennium.

The data were then checked against Australia's national population and mortality figures for 2008.

The researchers estimated that in 2008 Australian adults aged 25 and older spent 9.8 billion hours in front of the small screen, and that this time was associated with 286,000 years of life that ended prematurely.

Every single hour of TV watched after the age of 25 shortened the viewer's life expectancy by just under 22 minutes, according to an extrapolation of these figures.

In actuarial terms, an hour in front of the box had roughly the same effect on life expectancy as smoking two cigarettes.

In an extreme case, someone who spends a lifetime average of six hours a day watching TV -- in the top one percent of the viewing population can expect to live 4.8 years less than someone who does not watch TV, according to their calculation.

The study, headed by Lennert Veerman of the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland, is published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The investigators point the finger at TV watching not because of the programmes themselves but because of the dangers of physical inactivity that come from prolonged spells on the sofa.

A sedentary lifestyle is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, excess weight and other health problems.

Is a Lack of Sleep Making You Fat?

Last week during one of my sessions, I asked one of my patients how much sleep she gets on an average night. Judging by her drawn face, I knew it couldn’t be much. She looked at me and laughed: “I’m lucky if I get five or six hours a night.”

This situation is typical. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 63 percent of American adults don’t get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. Trust me, I understand there’s so much to do and only 24 hours to do it in! But we need to start putting sleep at the top of our to-do lists. Why? Being tired can lead to being overweight.

In the mid-afternoon, it’s easy to confuse exhaustion with hunger, so we might eat just because we’re tired. And the foods we seek then are often high in fat and carbohydrates. The problem is part mental, of course, but also physiological. Sleep deprivation can have neuro-hormonal effects. Studies show it leads to elevated levels of serum ghrelin, which is our appetite-stimulating hormone, and lower levels of leptin, a hormone that tells our brains when we’re full. As a result, we take in more calories and thus gain weight. Not to mention, fatigue can also make us sedentary.

Another reason to ensure you're getting enough zz’s? A study out of the University of Chicago found that for every one hour you cut your sleep, your risk for high blood pressure increases by 37 percent!

The bottom line: As multiple studies show, there is a relationship between sleep and health, including weight. So as hard as it is to get seven to nine hours a night, we really should. Start considering sleep part of a healthy lifestyle!

The Best Interval Training Technique for You

Don’t let interval training intimidate you it’s not just for gym rats or trained athletes. A cardio workout that alternates short bursts of intense activity with lower-intensity recovery periods delivers serious body benefits, from melting fat to boosting cardiovascular fitness and the technique can be used during a variety of activities, from the elliptical trainer to the running trail.

“Interval training helps you increase the amount of blood pumped out each time your heart beats so that you’re able to work harder at a lower heart rate,” says Cary Raffle, a trainer at New York Sports Clubs in New York City.

Another reason we’re sold on this technique: Interval training workouts are quick (many workouts take only 20 to 30 minutes) and they can be done anywhere even in your own backyard. Still, high-intensity cardio comes with risks do too much too fast and you’ll end up exhausted or injured, warns Raffle, who suggests spending one or two sessions with a personal trainer who can outline an interval training program based on your fitness level, goals, and cardiac health. “The occasional exerciser is not going to have the same interval training routine as the 3:02 marathoner,” he says. “If an unconditioned person picks a too-hard program, he’s not going to get as much out of it.”

To get you closer to your fitness goal, whether that’s rocking a two-piece swimsuit or shaving minutes off your latest race time, we consulted three trainers and asked for their advice on how to use intervals to get faster, stronger, and leaner in a flash.

Fitness Outside of Team Sports

Even kids who once said they hated sports might learn to like team sports as their skills improve or they find the right sport or a league. But even if team sports never thrill your child, there’s plenty a kid can do to get the recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day.

Free play can be very important for kids who don’t play a team sport. What’s free play? It’s the activity kids get when they’re left to their own devices, like shooting hoops, riding bikes, playing whiffleball, playing tag, jumping rope, or dancing.

Kids might also enjoy individual sports or other organized activities that can boost fitness, such as:

    * swimming
    * horseback riding
    * dance classes
    * inline skating
    * cycling
    * cheerleading
    * skateboarding
    * hiking
    * golf
    * tennis
    * fencing
    * gymnastics
    * martial arts
    * yoga and other fitness classes
    * Ultimate Frisbee
    * running

Supporting Your Kid’s Choices

Even if the going’s tough, work with your child to find something active that he or she likes. Try to remain open-minded. Maybe your child is interested in an activity that is not offered at school. If your daughter wants to try flag football or ice hockey, for example, help her find a local league or talk to school officials about starting up a new team.

You’ll need to be patient if your child has difficulty choosing and sticking to an activity. It often takes several tries before kids find one that feels like the right fit. But when something clicks, you’ll be glad you invested the time and effort. For your child, it’s one big step toward developing active habits that can last a lifetime.

Body Building - The Art Of Beauty

Man has always strived for maximum strength and physical perfection since time immemorial. A man with good physique and graceful body has always been looked upon with admiration everywhere. Men like Apollo, Hercules, Samson, Rustam and Sohrab will always be remembered with respect till their successes dazzle the world with more beautiful and proportionate bodies. A nation’s health is the nation's wealth.

This is an old saying and every nation can boast of having produced men of towering strength and enviable physical perfection. Towards the end of the last century the late Fugene Sandow started schools in England to build graceful symmetrical bodies. The movement took the populace by storm and gained such a vast popularity that it spread all over Europe and America in no time.

Body Building is the process of developing muscle fibers through the combination of weight training, increased caloric intake, and rest. Body Building originated from the Greeks believe it or not. Their basic idea was to celebrate the human body and it's functions. Back then, however, it was much different than it is now. They weren't so concerned with symmetry, just being massive and strong. Today's idea of being symmetrical along with being massive and strong stems from the Victorian ages. Now, Body Building and strength training is considered mainly for health reasons and just to look good.

The easiest way to assure both proper energy before Body Building and to replenish that glycogen afterwards is to consume a whole food nutrition supplement both before and after a workout.

Nutrition is by far the most important factor and is almost always responsible for either success or failure in bodybuilding and most fitness programs. Although very complex, a basic understanding can guide anyone in the right direction. As you progress in your bodybuilding and fitness programs and gain further understanding of the relationship between performance, recovery and nutrition, you'll be able to find certain nutritional strategies and manipulations that will help drive you to new heights.

In order to add muscle tissue you must force the body to add it. Your body won't just add a pound of muscle just because you followed a 3-set workout that you read about in Muscle + Fitness. You need to give the body a reason to make improvements in the case add muscle tissue. You have to provide what I call a 'stimulus'. This can be done in many ways and I'll address a few in just a moment. Basically, you need to force the body to add muscle by subjecting it to levels of stress it is not used to. Some methods are more obvious than others but all can work. Here are a few examples of how this can be done effectively.

First, the basic and common methods:

1. Increase weight or resistance
2. Perform more repetitions
3. Perform more sets
4. Move the resistance slower
5. Rest less between sets and exercises

The key to Muscle Building is diet and exercise. Exercise will improve your muscle tone, help you control your weight, reduce your blood pressure, help prevent heart disease, and it will improve the functioning of almost every one of your essential systems, from digestion to sleep. The amount of exercise you do depends on the shape you are in, and what you believe your ideal physique to be. When creating a Muscle Building regimen, it is important to keep in mind your level of weight training experience. If you do not have a great deal of experience it is important to ease into a weight training routine. As a rule of thumb, three to four workouts per week of at least thirty minutes should keep you healthy. It is essential to do research, or consult a nutritionist when figuring out a diet which will support you in building muscle. A well balanced diet is crucial when building muscle.

"The key is to stimulate muscle growth with the least amount of training in the shortest period of time."
Remember, if you have not stimulated enough muscle mass in a workout session, all the excess calories consumed are either excreted or deposited as body fat. Studies indicate that 95 percent of trainees simply don’t train hard enough to warrant an appreciable and consistent size and strength increase on a workout by workout basis. And yet they still continue to eat big to get big. Let me point out that you will get big if you eat big but it is often fat and not lean muscle mass. You don’t need 6-7 meals a day to build muscle and minimize the deposit of body fat. In fact, all that really matters is that total calories consumed in a day must exceed your Basal Metabolic rate

The essence of bodBody Building can be summarized as follows: feed the muscles enough calories to help the growth process and no more. “More is not always better”. Consuming more calories than what is necessary to serve the growth process causes your body to work harder to digest food and misuses valuable energy that could be better used to serve the growth process. The rest of the excess calories are usually turned into body fat and/or excreted. If we stimulate five pounds of muscle per training session and our next workout is 3 weeks away we need only 3000 calories in a space of three weeks to serve the growth purpose. Now when you divide 3000 calories by 21 days you have a little over 145 calories a day.

To do Body Building or any task you have to plan some goals by which you can know the work you doing is helping you or not. Here are some general recommendations for different goals:
If your goal is to tighten and tone muscles:
• Focus on increasing reps, decreasing rest, and changing exercises frequently
• Train each muscle group twice per weight
• Perform fewer sets of many different exercises
If your goal is to increase strength and power:
• Focus on increasing weighing
• Train each muscle group once every 7-10 days
• Perform multiple sets of each exercise approximately 2-5 sets per exercise
If your goal is to increase muscle size:
• Focus on shocking muscles by changing variables frequently (exercises, set and rep schemes rest time, etc)
• Train each muscle group on a variable schedule. Experiment by training a muscle group 3 times a week and then once every ten days.
• Perform multiple sets for a while and then perform single sets for a week or two.
Eating to gain muscle mass, power and strength is ridiculously simple. Remember the simple things in life are the things that usually work. Complicated issues like measuring every morsel of food are at best an inefficient way of gaining muscle mass.

A very important aspect of being able to build muscle, aside from doing the exercise, is to be consistent in your efforts. Building an impressive physique involves persistence and determination, but no matter what anyone says, it is well within your ability & if you have decided that you have to be a smart one than you will be.

Treadmill Running vs. Outdoor Running

Running is generally a solitary pursuit but one that is quite popular as a means of stress relief and weight loss. It is used by a wide array of people for various reasons. For some, running is a key element in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, others use running to cope with stress and other damaging mental stimuli. The environment in which one exercises can be very instrumental in determining the realized benefits of a run. Indoor treadmills may be utilized by those looking for a predictable and user controlled running experience.

There may come a time in the life of any runner where they are faced with the decision of treadmill running vs. outdoor running. While this does not have to be an irreversible decision, there are significant differences in not only the method but also the goals and benefits of each:

    *Impact: Both exercise formats have some degree of impact. The road has a far higher impact level than a treadmill, yet a grass surface cushions the degree of impact more so than a standard treadmill. If you perform a lot of running, you will want to be wary of the degree of impact that your body encounters, otherwise your joints will inevitably sustain long-term damage as a consequence.

    * Effectiveness: The treadmill belt offers some help by pulling your feet back underneath your body, so you are potentially exerting less energy to move your feet and legs than if you were not on a treadmill. But both outdoor running and the treadmill can be as effective as each other. Effectiveness really comes down to your overall exercise and nutritional regime. Often the best indicator of the effectiveness of a particular exercise is how much you enjoy it. Think about it, if you don't enjoy running outdoors, then you're probably not going to stick to a consistent regime. Additionally, you won't put in the same amount of effort as if you really loved running outside!

    *Wind Resistance: When you run indoors on a treadmill, you do not have to overcome wind resistance. The lack of wind means you'll spend less energy running 5 kilometers on a treadmill than you will running 5 kilometers outdoors. However, it may depend on how fast you are running. For the average person, running 8 - 14 kilometers per hour (kmph) will result in little difference. Some studies say outdoor running expends up to 5 percent more calories; if you run faster than 14 kmph, running outdoors could utilize up to 10 percent more calories because you are working harder against wind resistance. To make your treadmill workout closer to outdoor exercise, simply raise the treadmill incline to 1% and you will expend as many calories as if you were walking or running on flat pavement outdoors.

    *Accessibility: A run outdoors is certainly convenient. Put on your running shoes and away you go. But there could be many problems associated with outdoor running. One problem may be that you live in the middle of the city where it's completely flat and overly crowded. Another may be that you don't feel comfortable running outside in the dark after work. The major benefit with the treadmill is that you can run without having to dodge people and adjust the hill settings as you see fit. The drawback is that, unless you have a treadmill available at home, you will have to make your way to the gym and possibly even wait for the machine (probable during peak hour at the gym).

    *Propelling Your Body: The main difference between treadmill running and outdoor running lies in how your legs have to carry your upper body.

      Outdoor running, your leg muscles mostly work on propelling you forward. Treadmill running, because the belt is moving under you, your leg muscles mostly work at re-positioning your legs to keep you stable. This affects how much work your individual leg muscles need to do.

      Treadmill running, the rearward moving belt decreases the need to pull your upper body forward and so requires less work from your hamstrings than outdoor running. However, your hip flexors (right at the top-front of each leg) have to work harder to provide stability as your planted foot is dragged back (literally) under your body.

    *Measurable results: If you are running around outdoors you usually do not have any way to measure if you are achieving your goals and increasing your fitness. You may time yourself, but many factors can influence the time it takes you to complete your circuit, including the weather and traffic or walkers getting in your way. On a treadmill you have many ways to measure your progress including specially designed instruments.

      You can track calories burned, distance, incline and speed. By keeping track of this information you will be able to match or exceed your previous workout.

    *Weather: One of the greatest advantages of having a treadmill is that you can walk or run in any kind of weather. Rain, snow, ice, it doesn't matter, and you can run through a heatwave too. In your heated and air conditioned home you can always exercise at the perfect temperature. Also most treadmills now have on board cooling fans which helps keep you cooler in addition to the cooling of your home or apartment.

    *Convenience: If you have a treadmill you can use it whenever you have a free moment. You do not have to get to the park first. All adults in the family can use it too, and you may find that family members who would not normally take any exercise are motivated by having a well equipped home gym.

      You also don't have to worry about missing your favorite TV, special on TV or the latest award show as you can watch TV while you are on the treadmill. Some treadmills now have built in TV's in their consoles. They also have built in speakers so that you can listen to your ipod of Mp3 player.

    *Safety: Have you ever been in a gym and heard a "thud", only to see that someone has fallen off the treadmill? It's not an uncommon occurrence! Some people just cannot get the hang of a treadmill, so if you fall into this category, it may be wise to find an alternative.

      For women safety can be a big issue, but men too can be at risk of muggings or other attacks when running in the park or on the street. Even in the best neighborhoods a circular route will usually take you through some dark or lonely places, and even though you probably try to be out when there are other runners, you will find yourself running alone sometimes. Even if you live in a safe neighborhood, you do have to be on the lookout for loose dogs, and pot holes.

    * Cost: This one doesn't need any explanation. Even a used treadmill is going to cost you more than running around your local park.

    *Space in the home: If you have a large home this will not bother you, but if you live in a tiny apartment you may not have a lot of space for home gym equipment like a treadmill. Keep in mind though that you can get foldaway treadmills for easy storage.

    *Fresh air: Running outside gets you into the fresh air. So it's likely to be better for your lungs than exercising indoors, even if you have all of the windows open. To get around this you could put your treadmill in the backyard in good weather.

    *Privacy: While some people love to strut their perfect physique around the park, for most of us there are advantages in not having the world watching us run! At home it doesn't matter what you wear, whether you sweat or how much you weigh. Just lock the door and nobody is going to see.

If you are training for an outdoor walking or running event, it is fine to do part of your training on the treadmill, but try to do at least 60% of it outdoors. By training outdoors, you will be much more prepared for the demands on your muscles and joints, the weather and the varied terrain. Additionally, the treadmill doesn't have any way to simulate downhill running, which is important if you are running an event that has varied terrain. Similarly, there aren't turn on a treadmill, which is another thing your body needs to adapt to if you plan to run outside.

To wrap this all up, we can say that treadmill running with distraction (people, tv, music) is going to feel easiest and require slightly less energy. Outdoor running with no music is going to feel hardest, but you will benefit from expending more energy (and likely burning more calories).