Health and Fitness

We are approaching the time of year when you might be starting to think about and plan your winter holiday, skiing is a popular winter holiday past time, probably the most popular resort with UK Holiday makers would be the French Alps.

Skiing is not only fun but also a very strenuous sport using all the muscles in your body but some more than others, in order to get your moneys worth and spend as much time on the slopes as possible without injury you would be well advised to properly prepare your muscles prior to the trip itself.

The last thing you want to do is spend out all that money and after the first day or 2 spend the rest of your holiday nursing sore muscles or worse still broken bones, statically most skiing injuries occur on the first or second day of the skiing holiday usually in the afternoon, this is due to a lack of stamina and loss of concentration.

Preparing your muscles for skiing

Skiing uses all of your muscle groups but it puts the most strain on your legs, strengthening your upper leg muscles is key if you want to avoid injury when skiing, it also helps to have a good level of cardio fitness cycling would be perfect preparation for your skiing holiday as would some regular resistance training using kettlebells.

Circuit training can offer you an excellent time and cost effective way to prepare for your skiing holiday, heres some beginner circuit training advice.

Origins of the Kettlebell

Kettlebells originate from Russia where they are called Girya, the kettlebell is a cast iron weight with a handle on top.

Kettlebells have started to become very popular of late hailed for the benefits they offer, the kettlebell itself is not a new phenomonom however. Kettlebells have been around in Russia for a very long time, so popular were they that Russian strongmen and weightlifters were referred to as “kettlebell men.”

What are the benefits of Kettlebells?

Kettlebells offer excellent fat burning workouts due to the type of movements you can use them for (compound movements) involving the main muscle groups, kettlebells also increase overall body and core strenght.

Many proffessional trainers now include kettlebells in their clients training programs due to the fact they offer excellent benefits for:

• Active Recovery
• Increased Cardio Fitness
• Increased Fat Burning
• Overall Body Strenght Conditioning
• Increased Emphasis on the core

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An anti oxidant is defined as a molecule that can either prevent or slow down the process of oxidation.

The oxidative process generates free radicals, free radicals can have a very detremental effect on your health and are responsible for several diseases.

Free radicals inside any cell can slow down its growth and will eventually make the cell die.  Antioxidants prevent the natural aging process of our body, because they antagonize the oxidative process. These qualities help antioxidants fight disease.

The Human brain is very susceptible to damage by the free radicals that are generated by oxidative procedures because of its high level of metabolic reactions and increased levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Doctors prescribe various forms of antioxidants to treat different forms of brain injury.

All exercise produces an amount of free radicals. So anyone undertaking physical activity requires supplementation of antioxidants.

Dietry Sources of Antioxidants

The most powerful dietry antioxidants include – Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Glutathione, Melatonin, Selenium, Molybdenum etc.

There are some naturally occurring antioxidants found within the human body – ALC (Acetyl L Carnitine) and ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid).  Both of them are part of Omega-3 fatty acid group. Omega-3 fatty acids are well known to be a potent antioxidant.

Foods that contain are larger amount of antioxidants are – broccoli, cabbage, spinach, yeast, beef besides the heart and kidney as well as dairy products.

Eat Fiber block Fat

Fiber is the indigestible portion of all plants, its found in their cell walls and fiber provides the structural support to the plant. Dietary fiber comes from plant foods like grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. Animal products do not contain this dietary fiber. Most of the fiber rich foods are found to contain soluble and insoluble forms of fiber. Fibers, mainly the soluble fibers are medically potent as cholesterol reducers and help regulate blood sugar. While the insoluble forms of fiber are potent laxatives.

According to health experts diets consisting of more fiber help weight loss. The reasons fiberous foods fight against fat are,

• Fiber controls the intake of sugar and fat
• Fiber helps to regulate the level of blood sugar
• Fiber has a fat binding property

Most dietary fibers have zero calories in them. They have low sugar and fat content. So when you fill your stomach with fiber rich foods, there will be less space for fatty foods. As a  high fiber diet requires longer for food breakdown you do not feel hungry. The fibers bind to the fat you eat and help to remove them from your body before they are stored on your body as fat. Less Nutrients are absorbed from the food into your bloodstream as fiber slows down the production of insulin after a meal. Cholesterol is produced in our body by the liver. Food also provides a smaller portion of it. But as fat is blocked in the intestine by the fiber, most of the cholesterol does not get absorbed. Even the fat soluble vitamins are blocked by the fiber along with the fat.

Raw Food Diet

Amino acids are precursors of protein. Several different amino acids after joining by chemical bonds form a protein structure. The chemical and other properties of protein depend upon the sequence of amino acids in the chain.

There will be two separate protein molecules if the sequence of the amino acids is different, no matter if the combination of amino acids is same in two proteins.

Branched chain amino acids are non-linear amino acids containing aliphatic side chain. There are three amino acids in this category – valine, leucine and isoleucine. These three amino acids are very essential to build the skeletal and muscular structure in our body. They also produce different proteins in different combinations. At present, there is much discussion about branched chain amino acids in lowering mental fatigue as it is seen that they can reduce the serotonin level in the brain. They are also used to treat burn patients in their convalescence stage.

An essential amino acid is such that it can not be synthesized de novo, i.e. our body can not synthesize this amino acid from other resources.

Therefore, this group of amino acid has to be supplied by food. There are nine essential amino acids – lysine, leucine, isoleucine, histidine, valine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine and tryptophan.

The non-essential amino acids can be synthesized in our body. They are – alanine, cysteine, cystine, glutamic acid, glutathione, glycine, serine, taurine, threonine, asparagine and proline.

Are you continuing your morning session of running even you are suffering from excruciating pain in the left heel? Have you ever felt a binding for treadmill running even when you are having a low grade fever? Continue to skip even when your friends have given up long before?

If anyone of these is true, you may be having some kind of exercise addiction my friend. Whereas regular exercise is necessary to keep your health hale and hearty, doing excessive exercise will cause no good, instead it can ruin your life.

How do you know that you are addicted to exercise? Let us find out –

• You feel extremely anxious if you miss any time of your daily exercise schedule.
• You continue to exercise each day, even when you are so sick that it is better to remain in the bed.
• You are missing classes, reaching late in the workplace or skipping social gathering to do some more exercise.
• If you miss any schedule, you do twice or thrice on the very next day.

If your answer is yes in any case, it is time to have a look into the deeper aspect of life as to who is driving your mind for doing exercise or how. Experts say that maintaining an exercise dairy will enable you to track the progress.

If you are progressing, there is no need to continue over exercising. It may land you in personal injury in a short time or you may become a patient of osteoarthritis at an early age.

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So you want to start your fitness regime. Most enthusiastic readers know that a fitness program consists of two things – regular exercises and proper diet. Let us discuss the things to consider when starting a fitness program.

Exercise: first of all, consult your doctor. He will tell you that whether you are fit for every type of exercises or you need to restrict some vigorous workouts. Exercise regimes depend upon the fitness level and health of each individual.

Never be hasty doing any sort of exercise. Slow but steady start is the key for optimum result. Mother Nature has created our body in such a way that it can not withstand any drastic changes in our homeostasis. Get some physical exercise equipment if you don’t want to join a gym.

Get some help from a personal trainer, this site heres some resources for you building muscle, Fat Loss, Dieting, subscribe to the Feed and read some fitness magazines. There are lots of videos for people who are new to exercise.

There is no reason for crash dieting. Experts say that skipping meals does harm rather than offering any beneficial effect to your body. When you are doing exercises, your body needs calories/energy. Otherwise, it will badly affect your work performance. You need to take fresh vegetables, complex carbohydrates, fiber and protein.

Take plenty of water. Avoid fat, junk foods, alcohol and tobacco as much as possible.

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Fast and Slow twitch muscle fibres 

Muscles are made of two types of fiber, these are slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibres.

The ratio of these muscle fibers is 50:50, muscles are made up of up to 100,000 different fibres.

The number of fibres in each of each muscle gets determined when the sperm gets fertilized in the womb in other words it is genetically determined. 

Activities like running and weight lifting would determine which particular type of muscle fiber gets developed.

Fast Twitch Muscles

Fast twitch muscle fibers work faster than the slow twitch muscle fibers (surprising). Fast twitch muscles emit more power, but the  drawback of this kind of muscle fiber is that it cannot emit energy for long periods of time.

Fast twitch muscles are used in  anaerobic activities such as sprint running and body building. Fast twitch muscles receive signals from the brain at a much faster rate and thus the action of these muscles fiber is faster. Fast twitch muscles remain in contraction for a very low period of time before they need to rest or fail.

Slow Twitch Muscles

Slow Twitch muscle fibers work slower. These kinds of muscle fibers are termed as type1 muscle fibers, and can withstand energy for longer periods of time. Slow twitch muscle fiber do not emit the same force in comparison with fast twitch muscles. Slow twitching muscles are useful for aerobic activities such as long distance running, swimming, biking and activities that need stamina. Slow twitch muscles are a kind of backup for the fast twitch muscles. The higher the repetition of the work the more the energy is expelled by the muscle.

What do Steroids do? 

We often find adverse reports in different sections of the media that steroids are harmful to human beings and the person on steroids is viewed as he has done any heinous crime. But you may be surprised to know that doctors have been using anabolic steroids purposefully and successfully since the drug was invented.

If a patient is suffering from undescended testis or his testes have been removed by surgery for any reason (may it be cancer or other benign tumor conditions), they have to be prescribed the male sex hormone which is nothing but anabolic steroid (testosterone). This replenishment is mandatory for the patient to live a healthy life. It will also help him to preserve his secondary sex characters like low pitched voice, body hairs (chest hair, beard and moustache) and his libido.

Apart from the testosterone, there are also some infant medical conditions where steroid is needed.

Anabolic steroids are also helpful to the male patients suffering from low sperm count and infertility, gynecomastia (male breast enlargement). In women, anabolic steroids are helpful for facial hair growth and changes in the menstrual cycle.

After some destructive surgical procedure (amputation, removal of partial muscle mass), doctors prescribe anabolic steroids to build the muscle rapidly.

But there are some gray lines also. Prolonged use of anabolic steroid can lead to jaundice, liver tumor, high blood pressure and weight gain due to fluid retention.

It is time to change the mindset of the people that steroids are bad always.