Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Know About the Physical Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is a word of Sanskrit language that means union. It is a practice which uses posture and breathing techniques inducing relaxation and improving strength. Different types of yoga help in giving physical, mental, and spiritual benefits for individuals. Let us know about the physical benefits of yoga.

Flexibility:
The body becomes more flexible by stretching it in new ways. A greater range of motion to muscles and joints is brought through stretching. A gain in flexibility in hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips can be expected through yoga.

Strength:
Support of the weight of the body by themselves is done by many yoga poses. This may include balancing on one leg or supporting with arms. Movement of oneself slowly in and out of poses through yoga may increase strength.

Muscle Tone:
As the strength of the body increases, muscle tone is also increased. Shape of long and lean muscles can be maintained by yoga.

Pain Prevention:
With increase in flexibility and strength of the body, several causes of some types of pain can be prevented. Tightness and spinal compression may be caused in people who spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car. The alignment of body can be improved through yoga, in and out of the class, preventing many types of pain.

Better Breathing:
Focus on the attention of breathing is given through yoga breathing exercises called as Pranayama. Nasal passages can be cleared and the central nervous system gets calmed due to yoga breathing exercises. This helps in bringing physical and mental benefits.

Yoga can be taught at many institutions. Yoga teacher training and yoga certification has gained a lot of importance these days.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Precautions For Fitness Training For Over 40 Age Group People

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As the age increases, there will be a slower response to muscle recovery and physical exercise, indicating an essential need for change in the operation of a fitness routine in the lifestyle. Exercises which were performed in fitness routine once without any difficulty will now become a challenge and makes the individuals to break off physical exercise from fitness routine as age starts to create a heavy damage. But fitness training is very essential for older age individuals in order to have progressing health and quality of life. Older individuals must do fitness training exercises carefully precautions to prevent injury.

First, warm-up must be given more priority before performing prolonged exercise routine, to warm the body for doing exercises and prevent an alarming injury. Warm up might only last for 5 minutes in the early years, but with the body aging, it is vital for each warm up routine, whether walking or biking, to be performed for nearly 15-20 minutes. This increase in time helps in stretching and warming the muscles for the following workout, and also vigorously decreases the frequency of injury when regularly done before each extended exercise period.

Second, full body workout routines must be done for the complete muscular structure, and routine which includes functioning of only a few muscle groups a day must be avoided. Exercises which includes several muscle groups instead of single muscle like squats or bench presses must be performed because they will make uniform assessment of stress in muscle alignment. Exercises which involves more effort must be avoided.

Finally, some workouts are preferred depending on age. Instead of performing lifting routine 3-5 times a week as done in youth, now one day per week or less gives more result, as the recovery time is more between each single workout day. Workout routine should be done in few amount as they provide good results for complete health and prevent injury observed in excessively active individuals of older age.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Five Essential Components Of Physical Fitness

Optimal fitness is a person's ability to lead daily life actively and fit individuals will develop a resistance to diseases like obesity, heart failure and diabetes that are associated with inactivity and idle lifestyles. Five Essential components of physical fitness are:

Cardiorespiratory endurance
Cardiorespiratory endurance is very essential for complete health and the fitness. It is the ability of the heart to supply oxygen rich blood to the essential working muscles. The standard example of the physical activity and sports which are related to cardio and vascular endurance are jogging, swimming, cycling, walking and aerobics.

Muscular strength
It is the weight that a muscle or muscle group can lift and strain in a single effort. Weight training or strength training are the methods of boosting muscle mass which provides raw strength to the body resulting in fitness and weigh loss. If muscle mass is increased, then the capacity of body to burn calories is also increased and body fat ratio is reduced. They also help in maintaining bone structure and prevent decalcification.

Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance must not be confused with muscular strength, as the benefits they provide are different. It is the ability to repeat considerable level of muscular effort like shovelling snow. In order to expand the maximum range of muscle potential, muscle strength should also be increased.

Physical flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to move body joints through full range of motion. Stretching is associated with flexibility making the range of motion to be maintained or increased through physical activity. Tendons and joints become tight and hard and flexibility levels of body parts become weakened without regular stretching.

Body composition
The body composition deals with the ratio of fat in the body. The rate of adding pounds of fat is associated with the lack of physical exercise. The high fat content ratio is an indication of higher tendency to develop coronary heart disease, diabetes, joint and back pains, arthritis and also higher risk of tendon-muscular accidents and injuries caused due to lack of exercising.