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Get Up and Get Moving
Big Benefits Of Physical Activity
By Drs. Ronald Klatz and Robert Goldman
1) Help Your Heart
While a routine program of physical exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of premature death in people with coronary artery disease, Richard V. Milani, from the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, and colleagues investigated how psychosocial stress influences the effects of exercise training. The team followed 522 cardiac patients, including 53 who had high stress levels and 27 control patients who had high stress levels but did not engage in cardiac rehabilitation. The study subjects were offered 12 weeks of exercise classes consisting of 10 minutes of warm-up, 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking, rowing, jogging, or similar), and then a 10-minute cool down stretch.
The classes were given three times a week and subjects were also asked to engage in one to three exercise sessions a week on their own. The researchers found that the subjects who became physically fitter during the study period (by exercising) were 60 percent less likely to die in the following six years. Exercise also helped reduce stress levels from one in 10 patients to fewer than one in 20 patients, which lowered the overall death rate for stressed subjects by an impressive 20 percent. Now that’s a great way to lower your stress and increase your life span at the same time!
Source: Richard V. Milani, Carl J. Lavie. “Reducing Psychosocial Stress: A Novel Mechanism of Improving Survival From Exercise Training.” American Journal of Medicine, October 2009.
2) Build Strong Bones
Wolfgang Kemmler, from Freidrich-Alexander University (Germany), and colleagues analyzed data on 246 older women enrolled in the Senior Fitness and Prevention Study. The researchers found that women who exercised had higher bone density in their spine and hip, and also had a 66 percent reduced rate of falls. Fractures due to falls were twice as common in control subject vs. the exercise group. The authors’ conclusion: “Compared with a general wellness program, our 18-month exercise program significantly improved [bone mineral density] and fall risk.”
Source: Wolfgang Kemmler W, et al. “Exercise Effects on Bone Mineral Density, Falls, Coronary Risk Factors, and Health Care Costs in Older Women: The Randomized Controlled Senior Fitness and Prevention (SEFIP) Study.” Archives of Internal Medicine, January 2010.
3) Grow Brain Cells
In that a number of previous studies have suggested regular exercise improves brain health, David J. Creer, from the National Institute on Aging, and colleagues studied the underlying mechanisms dictating how exercise improves information processing. The researchers prompted adult mice to use running wheels, finding that doing so increased their number of brain cells and enabled them to perform better at spatial learning tests compared to mice that did not exercise) The exercising mice were better able to tell the difference between the locations of two adjacent identical stimuli, an ability that the team found to be closely linked to an increase in new brain cell growth in the hippocampus portion of the brain.
Source: Creer DJ, et al. “Running Enhances Spatial Pattern Separation in Mine.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jan. 19, 2010.
Source: To Your Health –By: Drs. Ronald Klatz and Robert Goldman
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1) Dynamic Warm-Ups
How can you possibly expect to get maximum results if you don’t establish a base foundation and get your body ready to perform? The purpose of a dynamic warm-up is to prepare your body for your workout. It’s value comes from taking your body through all the planes of functional human movement, including bending, twisting and rotating.
Example dynamic warm-up exercises: Squat-to-stand movements (10 reps), lateral lunges (10 reps), and reverse lunges with twist and overhead reach (five reps each side).
2) Interval Training
What’s the best-kept secret when it comes to intense workouts? Studies have shown that about five minutes of high-intensity exercise, consisting of eight rounds of 20 seconds of exercise per round followed by 20 seconds off for recovery, is superior to 60 minutes of continuous cardio. Read that one more time so it sinks in! An important thing to remember when implementing this into your program is to never substitute duration for intensity. When working only a short period of time, you must ensure that your exercise form is perfect on each repetition.
3) Timed Workouts
This is a similar concept to interval training, except the “bursts” of exercise are a bit longer and you’re generally doing only one particular exercise at a time, rather than performing a whole-body workout all at once. The purpose is essentially the same: to maximize the benefits of a resistance training program by creating maximum metabolic disturbance. That means you burn up body fat keeping your heart rate constantly elevated while training. Your metabolism never reaches an equilibrium set-point due to the alteration in timing.
4) Super-Set Training Using Your Body-Weight
Intensify your weight training by adding “super sets” of body-weight training to truly engage your muscles. Super-setting is a technique in which you take an exercise targeted for a specific muscle group and immediately perform a similar exercise with no rest. With this technique, you don’t use weights or machines for the second exercise. This is a time-efficient, intensive way to maximize strength and lean muscle development. Best of all, you can use this principle for any workout.
Example exercise, Chest Combination: flat-bench dumbbell presses (15 repetitions), super-setted with wide-grip push-ups (25 repetitions). Back combination: machine pull downs (15 repetitions), super-setted with body-weight pull-ups (maximum number of repetitions you can perform).
5) Recovery and Regeneration
Working out breaks your muscles down; in order for them to heal properly, you must give your body adequate time and opportunity to rest. Without appropriate recovery time, you risk overtraining, which can lead to injury and lethargy. Moreover, too much exercise limits your progress and your body becomes catabolic, meaning it begins to degenerate. Eventual loss of lean muscle mass and bone density occurs. How can your body thrive when you do not allow proper healing? No amount of exercise will positively affect your body if you are in a state of overtraining. Serious weight training creates microtrauma; tiny tears and strains in your muscles and connective tissues. To ensure that you are not damaging your body, it is recommended to weight train no more than three times in a seven-day period.” Incorporate regeneration programs such as active isolated rope stretching and myofascial foam rolling techniques on rest days for accelerated recovery.
Source: to your Health –By: Perry Nickelson, DC
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Eat to look young!
A healthier approach to growing old is to exercise and eat right. And eating right is even more important than previously presumed. New research shows that a diet rich in certain nutrients may prevent and reverse skin aging more effectively than expensive treatments. A study of more than 4,000 women found a strong correlation between aging skin and poor dietary habits, such as getting too few vitamins. Stock up on the following foods to help your skin stay smooth, supple, and young—no matter your age.
Berries, particularly raspberries, cranberries, and strawberries, are excellent sources of ellagic acid, an antioxidant that helps protect skin against sun damage. Although UV radiation can cause melanoma, sun exposure also leads to fine lines, discoloration, and age spots. According to research from Korea, ellagic acid protects skin against UV damage by blocking the production of MMP, or matrix metalloproteinase—enzymes that destroy collagen. Ellagic acid has also been shown to reduce inflammation, which hinders skin’s elasticity and can cause redness, puffiness, blistering, and fine lines. All berries are rich in polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that protect the skin from free-radical damage, says Tara Gidus, RD, of Orlando, Florida.
How much to eat: Consume a variety of berries throughout the week, aiming to eat a 1/2 cup or more per day.
White tea is sky-high in anti-oxidants, fights cancer, boosts heart health, and protects skin. Scientists in London discovered that white tea blocked enzymes that break down collagen and elastin—a protein that makes skin elastic and prevents sagging—better than 23 other herbs and plant extracts. “Because white tea is the least processed of all teas, it has a higher level of antioxidants,” says Pittsburgh’s Rita Singer, RD. White, red, black, and green teas are also high in polyphenols, she adds.
How much to drink: Singer recommends at least 2 cups of white tea daily, but some studies suggests sipping as many as 4 to 6 cups a day for optimum benefits.
Spinach has one of the most impressive nutritional profiles of any vegetable, with more than 80 distinct nutrients. One cup of fresh spinach provides almost 200 percent of your daily vitamin K, which inhibits calcification, says Cees Vermeer, PhD, a biochemistry professor at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. Not only can calcification cause hardening of the arteries, it also limits skin elasticity, leading to wrinkles. Because the body cannot store vitamin K for long periods of time or in large doses, benefits are best obtained through food. Spinach, along with other dark, leafy greens, is also a rich source of skin-enriching vitamins A, C, and E.
How much to eat: Gidus recommends one cup of spinach at least three times weekly. Vitamin K is fat soluble, so eat your greens with a little olive oil to help absorb the nutrient.
Source: Natural Solutions –By: Wendy McMillian
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Running is one of the best forms of aerobic conditioning for your heart and lungs. It can significantly increase your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn, leading to loss of excess body fat. Those who run regularly are also less likely to experience bone and muscle loss due to the body’s positive response to additional physical demands.
Pay attention to your shoes:
Shoes wear out after 300 to 500 miles. You often can’t see the wear, but, your knees, hips and back will feel it. Visit a running specialty store for quality shoes and talk to your doctor for suggestions on the best shoes to get. Not just any shoe will do.
Run on different surfaces:
See how many different surfaces you can run on in a month: asphalt, gravel, trail, grass, track, treadmill and beach. Each stresses your leg muscles in a slightly different way, helping to prevent overuse injuries. (If possible, avoid concrete, the hardest and most harmful surface for runners.)
Keep a training journal:
A journal can be a great way to maintain motivation and consistency. Keep it filled with running times, routines, motivational quotes and how your body reacts to various routines. You should have a documented road map for reaching your running goals.
Introduce high-intensity interval training into your running routine:
Alternate, pace, speed, tempo and rest periods during a single running session. For example, keep a steady pace for a mile and then sprint for 30 seconds. Do this for several cycles and notice how your heart rate and muscle fatigue threshold increase by your efforts.
So, now that you know more information than the “average Joe” about running, it’s time to take that first step toward a healthier you. Every great journey starts with a single step; now just put one foot in front of the other to see how far this new journey takes you. I have a feeling you will discover a passion for the open road you never know existed. Welcome to the wonderful world of running.
Source: to your Health –By: Perry Nickelson, DC
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