Archive | November, 2016

Protein Is the Fuel for Mental and Physical Performance

A steady supply of protein keeps a variety of bodily functions going. Proteins are not like carbohydrates, which are stored in the body as fat, or other nutrients that the body produces from several food sources. The only place that proteins are stored is in muscle tissue and in almost every cell in your body. If your protein levels are too low, the body will rob these essential amino acids from the very muscles and tissues that you are trying to strengthen.

In addition to muscle loss, other symptoms of too little protein in your diet include fatigue and a general feeling of lethargy. This weakened state may compromise both your mental and physical abilities and your overall performance will suffer. A regular supply of protein, with each meal, helps to supply the amino acid building blocks to support the growth of muscle and connective tissue. These are essential elements to sustaining the motor functions of the body.

Beyond their contribution to your physical strength, proteins help to regulate hormones and blood sugar. The result is increased mental focus and a greater ability to recover from stresses. One of those stresses is a loss of fluids due to exercise activity. If you consume sufficient fluids, proteins help to assure that the fluids reach all of the necessary parts of the body to keep functioning. Proteins also help to assure that cells do not retain too much fluid. Maintaining fluid levels supports nerve function which helps regulate the body and manage things like muscle contraction.

Because your body uses up the protein that you consume, you need to keep the supply constant. This means that it doesn’t help to load up on protein at breakfast and then avoid it for the rest of the day. Too much protein in one sitting is more than your body can absorb and it will pass through. Then when mid-afternoon comes you will begin to feel the fatigue as your body begins to rob your muscles of amino acids.

If you reach that point, the best solution is to eat a handful of raw almonds or walnuts, or a slice of cheese. Stay away from that candy bar in the vending machine. All that sugar on top of fatigue will cause an insulin rush and worsen your fatigue. Then the insulin will make you feel hungry and you will be challenged to maintain your healthy diet at dinnertime. Similarly, if you work out during the day; make sure you eat some protein shortly after the session is complete. This will help to restore proteins to the muscles, keep the hormones in balance and help to re-hydrate the body as you drink water.

Comprehensive sources of proteins are found in many animal foods including fish, beef, lamb, chicken and eggs. A comprehensive protein source is one that includes many of the essential amino acids needed by the body. In addition, dairy products like yogurt, cheese and whey protein are good sources of comprehensive proteins. Yogurt and some cheeses have the added benefit of supplying much need beneficial bacteria to aid in digestion and support the immune system. If your preference is for vegetable-based proteins, good sources are beans and a variety of nuts and seeds. These foods also add fiber to your system and may reduce the absorption of proteins, so make a habit of adding sunflower seeds, almonds and other protein snacks to your regular diet.

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Planning Your Fitness Program-Fitness

You now know that regular physical activity and exercise can help you avoid preventable diseases and add to both the quality and length of your life. If you are currently active, you are more aware of the benefits of regular physical activity and should be motivated to continue your efforts. If you are sedentary or sporadically active, you realize that you should not delay one day longer in making the behavioral changes necessary to improve your fitness level.

Identifying Your Fitness Goals

Before you initiate a fitness program, analyze your personal needs, limitations, physical activity likes and dislikes, and daily schedule. If you have inherited no major risks for fatal or debilitating diseases, your specific goal may be to achieve(or maintain) healthy levels of body fat, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, or flexibility/mobility.

Once you become committed to regular physical activity and exercise, you will observe gradual changes and note progress toward your goals. Unfortunately, you can’t get fit for a couple of years while you’re young and expect the positive changes to last the rest of your life. You must become committed to fitness for the long haul-to establish a realistic schedule of diverse exercise activities that you can maintain and enjoy throughout your life.

Designing Your Fitness Program

Once you commit yourself to becoming physically active, you must decide what type of fitness program is best suited to your needs. Good fitness programs are designed to improve or maintain cardio respiratory fitness, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, and body composition. A comprehensive program could include a warm-up period of easy walking followed by stretching activities to improve flexibility, then selected strength development exercises, followed by performance of an aerobic activity for 20 minutes or more, and concluding with a cool-down period of gentle flexibility exercises.

The greatest proportion of your exercise time should be spent developing cardiovascular fitness, but you should not exclude the other components. Choose an aerobic activity you think you will like. Many people find cross training alternate-day participation in two or more aerobic activities(ie, jogging and swimming)-less monotonous and more enjoyable than long-term participation in only one aerobic activity. Cross training is also beneficial because it strengthen:, a variety of muscles, thus helping you avoid overuse injuries to muscles and joints.

Responding to the exercise boom, fitness equipment manufacturers have made it easy for you to participate in a variety of activities. Most colleges and universities now have recreation centers where students can use stair-climbing machines, stationary bicycles, treadmills, rowing machines, and ski-simulators.

What Do You Think?

You now have the ability to design your own fitness program. What two activities would you select for a cross-training program? Do the activities you selected exercise different major muscle groups?

Cross training Regular participation in two or more types of exercises (e.g., swimming and weight lifting)

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Niacin for Bodybuilding – Benefits and Side Effects

If you want to gain muscle and strength then you know that a good diet and intense exercise is necessary.

Is there anything else that can give you an edge over your competitors?

Well, there are plenty of different supplements available but how do you know which is best?

Take niacin for example, there are many claimed benefits but are there any side effects that you should know about before considering using it?

Please read on to discover the truth about niacin for bodybuilding.

Benefits of Niacin for Bodybuilding

Using niacin is said to offer the following benefits:

  • Faster delivery of vital nutrients thanks to increased blood flow
  • Better oxygen transportation due to increased red blood cell production
  • Increased production of Human Growth Hormone or HGH

Niacin is a vasodilator, which means that when you take it your blood vessels found within your body will widen.

When this occurs the more oxygen, nutrients and hormones will be able to pass through these widened blood vessels, which allows you to train much harder and for longer.

Another benefit of this extra oxygen transported will be increased focus and concentration, as your brain will subsequently receive more oxygen than normal.

The benefit of the extra HGH produced is that you are able to recover quicker, and will be able to repair and grow muscle.

This is because the more HGH present within your body the more IGF-1 will be produced also. IGF-1 is a hormone that helps your body to recover post-workout.

If you are trying to lose body fat then this extra HGH produced can be of benefit too. This is because it can help with lipolysis, which is when your body breaks down fat.

Any Side Effects?

While there are certain side effects associated with niacin use, the main issue is the ‘niacin flush‘.

This particular side effect is temporary and only lasts a few minutes, however you will experience the following when it occurs:

  • Tingling in the face and neck
  • Feeling warm
  • Itchiness
  • Slight reddening of your skin

This flush is harmless and completely normal, as you continue to use niacin you will build up a tolerance to it so this particular side effect will be lessened.

To further reduce the effect of this flush you could also try using a small dose of aspirin.

Is there an Alternative to Niacin?

There is an alternative to niacin that does not cause this flush. Its name is niacinamide, but it is not as effective.

The truth is that this niacin flush proves to you that the supplement is working.

Is Niacin Recommended?

Niacin has been proven to offer numerous benefits, especially if you are looking to build muscle and strength for bodybuilding.

Its benefits far outweigh any negatives so if you want that competitive edge then it is recommended.

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Grow Taller Quickly – How To Grow A Foot Taller In A Week

Unfortunately, if you are looking to grow taller quickly by a foot in about a week then I hate to tell you that there is no way that this is going to happen at all unless you start walking on stilts, no matter what anyone says, it just won’t happen. You can, however, over time grow taller quickly by at least 2 inches dependent on how much effort you are willing to put into what I am going to show in the following article.

Many people are looking for quick fixes that are going to help them increase their height in a week or similar but that is what we call wishful thinking. You are not going to find some sort of height increase machine, creams or pills that will boost your growth hormones but this in fact is something that you are just going to end up wasting money on. IF you are looking to climb your way up the height ladder then you are going to have to do this naturally.

When I say naturally I mean that you are going to have to go through all the exercises, stretches and dietary criteria as these methods are in fact the best and fastest methods that you can go through that can help you grow taller quickly.

This does sound like a lot of effort but if you do in fact put in the time and the effort then you will gain the benefits out of it as well. There are many people that have claimed to have up to 6 inches of extra height from going through the natural methods! But what you need to understand is that it did take time for this to happen, this isn’t something where you just take some pills and it starts working, this is like building muscle; you need to be realistic and willing to put the time and effort in to reap the rewards.

So now that all of you know how unrealistic it is growing a foot in a week we can now move forward into the natural methods which while they do take time to go through are very effective and pay off well.

There are many natural methods to take into account when thinking about growing taller quickly, the most popular and easiest are the stretches to grow taller.

These can be done at anytime you have free, may people do these in the morning when they wake up and also in the evening before they get themselves back to bed. The best thing about stretches and exercises is that many of them don’t even need equipment just natural body weight, performing this in the morning when you wake and before you go to sleep can be highly effective and teaming them up with exercises and a diet that is high in not only protein but also high in nutrients such as calcium as well everyday will help you create a routine that will help you grow taller quickly by at least 2 inches.

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The 3 ‘Fat Loss Foods’ Sabotaging Your Results

Feel like you’re doing everything right on your diet plan but still not seeing the results you desire?

Many people find themselves in this position. They are working hard on their approach and taking care to follow their diet to the letter. But yet, something is amiss. The scale just isn’t going downward and they aren’t getting the results they were hoping for.

What gives?

Often, the big problem is not their effort or motivation. The problem is that they are letting certain foods into their diet plan that are sabotaging their results. Often these foods are designed to be fat loss foods but they really aren’t. Instead, they’re holding you back from success.

What are these foods? Let’s go over three foods that you need to cut out of your diet immediately.

Fruit Flavored Yogurts

Fruit flavored yogurts are a favorite among many dieters but little do they know they’re digging into pint-sized sugar bombs each time they eat a small container.

Next time you’re picking out your favorite yogurt, double check the sugar content. You might just find yourself surprised to know there are 15 or more grams of sugar per serving.

Of course you can purchase the sugar-free varieties, but then you’ll be taking in a number of unwanted artificial sweeteners, which can be just as bad for you.

Instead, opt for plain Greek yogurt. Flavor it yourself by adding a handful of fresh berries.

Fat-Free Products

Next up on the list of foods that you want to get out of your diet plan are any products that are built to be ‘fat free’. These often state that they are fat free on the label and proud of it.

But ask yourself, if the fat is removed, what is added? Something had to be added otherwise these just wouldn’t taste good.

The answer to that is sugar. Sugar has often been added to these foods and is what is causing them to still taste appealing.

And, if you are trying to lose body fat, sugar is just as bad – if not worse – than fat is.

Protein Bars

Finally, the last of the foods that you need to be careful about including in your diet plan are protein bars. These may seem like a great option since they do contain protein and you’re probably trying to get more protein into your day.

But once again, you need to check that sugar content. Most protein bars are upwards of 15 grams of sugar or more per bar. Some measure in as high as 30 or even 40 grams of sugar depending on the calorie content.

In actuality, these aren’t much more than a glorified chocolate bar. While you can buy a few bars that do keep the sugar content very low (five grams or less per bar), you do need to search for those. Be careful about buying these bars.

So there are three foods that you may be currently eating that could be causing you some issues. Are any of these in your diet?

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Improve Your Baseball Swing by Learning How to Throw the Bat

Learning to Throw-the-Bat-Head (NOT “swing” the bat) is the foundation of a professional baseball-training program. It is also the 1st thing that you should do to develop your swing.

Top Hand:

You should learn to feel that throwing action from the top hand. You should feel the top hand throw or whip the bat head through the zone. As the ball is being delivered towards home plate, you should think about throwing the barrel “behind” the baseball. The pitcher is throwing the ball at you and you’ve got to throw the barrel back at the ball.

There are three movements that you must perfect when working on your top hand movements.

1. The first is throwing the barrel along the golf plane; truly feeling your hands whip the zone.

2. The second is throwing the barrel along the baseball plane and feeling the same whip in your hands through the zone.

3. The third is actually throwing the bat down the opposite field line.

Perform these three movements with both a regular grip as well as a split grip. A split grip means your hands are slightly separated an inch or so. These are simple movements and should be easy to learn, but doing them right is very important in developing your feel for throwing the barrel.

A brief review each of these movements:

1. Golf Plane:

The first movement you should use to develop this thrower’s feel is to take the bat along the golf plane. Using the golf plane keeps the bat light and this allows you to stay loose and relaxed. At the bottom of your swing, you simply throw your top hand past your bottom.

-When performing this drill, you just want to take that lead arm up and then just allow it to fall straight down. Before your lead arm gets to your front foot, you should feel your hands start to work and feel the bat whip through the zone.

– Notice how the lead arm stops before it gets to the foot and then all that’s working through there are the hands and the bat.

-It’s very important that you feel this whipping sensation and as that lead arm is going to stop before the foot, the lead hand works under, the top hand works over, as the bat head whips through and then the lead arm begins to move.

-When doing this drill and, in general as a hitter, you want to have a good, firm grip on the bat, but you always want to have nice, loose, relaxed wrists – – good grip, loose wrists.

Split grip:

It’s often a good idea to separate the hands an inch or two so that you can really feel what each hand is doing independently. If you do this, you really become aware how the top hand is throwing the barrel past the bottom hand.

Add stride to movement:

Once the hands are feeling good and you can really feel the throw in the hands, you can add some footwork, i.e. add a stride or a step into your throw.

– Throwing the barrel along the golf plane is a great movement to use in the on-deck circle or between pitches. It helps keep the batter stay relaxed and ensures that the hands are working properly.

2. Baseball plane:

The next movement you should master to feel the throw of the barrel is to simply take the same movement from the golf plane up to the baseball plane.

-Again, it is important that you get a good grip on the bat and keep very loose wrists.

– You should also feel the lead arm get to a point behind the front foot, and then it stops moving forward and allows the top hand to throw past the bottom to create that whip effect.

Note: When performing these dry swings, hitters should incorporate the top-hand release. It gives the batter the sensation of getting rid of the barrel, throwing the barrel at the ball and not “hanging onto it” afterwards. Hanging onto the bat throughout the entire swing can sometimes give the batter a very spinning, turning feel to his movement, which you don’t want.

A Major point of emphasis: don’t release until the top hand finishes. By finish, we mean contact with the ball AND the movement of the top-hand over-and-past the bottom-hand. We will also see the back-arm finish extension just after contact as the top hand gets over and past the bottom. We will not want to release the top-hand until we have completed these movements of the back arm/hand.

Split grip: again, just like on the golf plane, it’s a good idea to separate the hands an inch, maybe even two. The split grip allows you to feel what each hand is doing. Isolating the top-hand accentuates the throwing “feel”.

3. One arm throws:

Removing the bottom-hand and throwing the barrel along the baseball plane with just one arm can really help a player develop a feel of throwing the bat at the ball.

– Just attach the lead hand at the back-shoulder and feel the barrel in your top hand. Then simply step and make a side-arm throw of the barrel along the baseball plane. Start with dry swings.

-You will want to feel your hand whip through the zone. That whipping is felt as the top hand goes over the top just after what would have been contact with the ball.

-When performing a one-arm barrel throw, you want to try to stay square on the front side. Attaching the lead hand to the back shoulder would help with that.

-We really want to feel more tilt than turn on that front shoulder.

Note: In the early stages, however, it’s much more important that we concern ourselves with feeling the throw as opposed to developing perfect form. It’s a great movement for feeling side-arm throwing action of the high-level hitting pattern.

After we’ve developed a feel of the top hand throwing the barrel of the ball and the hand whipping the barrel through the zone, we can move on to the final movement for developing a feel and belief that we are “Throwing the Barrel”.

4. Throw the bat itself.

You want to make sure that you set up in a safe area in an open field or perhaps a position in front of the net. Be sure that anyone with you is not in front or to the side of you, but rather well behind you.

-The first time we throw bats, we’re not concerned with our mechanics. The purpose of this movement is to feel and see that the actions that you use to swing a bat are highly similar to the actions that you would use to throw it.

-Focus on the step and throw aspect of the movement.

-So that we don’t feel too much spin in these throws, we want to throw our bats down the opposite field line and as we release the bat, our hands and our body should be in the direction of the throw, again, down the opposite field line.

– Focus on feeling the one fluid movement aspect of the throw. It’s one fluid movement. In other words, we don’t start and stop when we throw. We don’t want to do that when we swing either. It’s one fluid movement.

Note: The step you take and the movements that the rest of your body makes, including your arms, all act to give speed to the bat head. The highest-level swing patterns most closely align with the high-level throwing patterns.

Again, don’t worry about perfect form on these throws. This is not an every session drill, but rather a movement to help you understand that the swing is essentially a throw. You can go back to it from time to time, especially if you feel yourself getting away from the smooth throwing pattern.

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Calisthenics – The Importance of Body Weight Exercise

Calisthenics, also known as body weight exercise, is one of the most versatile, effective and beneficial training methods available to both those who wish to start exercise and to the professional athlete. Body weight exercises are an efficient way to develop usable strength, stamina, flexibility, agility, and coordination.

Your degree of strength and stamina is often measured by your ability to control the movements of your own body. When you exercise the way you naturally move you begin to apply these physical improvements (i.e., true functional strength) to your activities of daily living.

One of the most important benefits that calisthenics can do for you is to help preserve the ‘range-of-motion’ (ROM) of your joints. That means the movements you perform during many body weight exercises actually preserve your ability to perform that motion anytime. Instead of your joints rusting-up, instead of arthritis settling in – for instance – they remain more fluid and pain-free.

You can also increase your strength. Done properly, calisthenics are as effective as weight lifting, due to using your own body weight as resistance.

Don’t underestimate the importance of body weight exercise…they are one of the best tools you have for improved physical conditioning. You will have greater strength and energy. You will feel more poised and become physically stronger and more agile. You will experience greater emotional balance and become more self-confident. You will even begin to have new ideas and perspectives emerging from your improving health and enhanced physical power.

Calisthenics Is the Perfect Place to Start

If you are just starting a physical conditioning program calisthenics will teach you how to control the weight of your own body, building you a solid foundation in which other physical conditioning techniques and strategies can be built upon.

The fact is…you should not attempt weighted resistance exercises until you can effectively and efficiently control the weight of your own body.

Calisthenics: Start, Add or Diversify

There are many variation of calisthenics…giving you the ability to modify them to make them easier or harder (by varying the exercises, stresses and intensities of your workouts). When used effectively and in the right proportion in your physical training program body weight exercise can help you meet the challenges of sport, work and life with greater awareness and energy.

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7 Tips to Increase Your Hip Flexibility

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is a lack of flexibility. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back and bracing in your hips.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

Here are 7 easy tips to increase your flexibility and range of motion while reducing pain and stiffness:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees. If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats* – full on, all the way to your heels squats! Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands*. This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats. Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths. With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion. This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips. As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges* (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges* (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

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Hemorrhoids and Enlarged Rectal Veins

Hemorrhoids, in the rectum, occur when the veins are not returning enough blood back to the heart. When this happens, the vein walls do not receive enough oxygen and release a substance into the blood that causes them swell and become inflamed. This swelling weakens them and their more likely to break when they are rubbed, like during a bowel movement.

If your stools are hard, you have a increased chance of breaking a swelling vein. For this reason getting your stools softer is one step in clearing your hemorrhoids. You can do this by eating a diet and using remedies that help relieve constipation.

Hemorrhoids, which are enlarged or swelling can exist,

* On the inside just above the muscle that closes the anus and into to the rectum. They are near the surface of the rectum mucus membrane

* On the outside, they occur on the skin that surround the anus and protrude or hang outward.

In a way, hemorrhoids can be considered varicose veins of the rectum. Just like varicose veins in the legs, the rectum veins become enlarged and come to the skin surface and bulge out.

Hemorrhoids occur when you are constipated for long periods, sit for long hours, lift heavy items, or are pregnant. If you’re constipated, you’re probably having a difficult time having a bowel movement. And when you do, your stools are usually small, hard, and dry.

If you have to push and strain or sit on the toilet for 10-15 minutes, then expect to have hemorrhoids at some point. Two to three minutes is all you normally need to have a natural bowel movement.

Over 85% of the population has hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids are a sign that fecal matter is not passing through your colon like it should. Simple hemorrhoids are not dangerous to your health, but hemorrhoids that have been building for a while will cause you some discomfort, such as,

* Mucus discharge

* Bleeding showing up in your stools or dripping into the toilet water

* Itching on the outside of the rectum

* Pain in the rectum area and during a bowel movement

* Pain in the rectum area, when you sit

* Soft bulging area in the rectum or anus that give you a sensation that something is there.

See your doctor if your hemorrhoids are painful, have excess bleeding, or stools have change in color from medium brown to dark brown or black.

Just be aware of any growth in the rectum, bleeding during a bowel movement, and a change in your stools color. Then take action to take care of these changes by seeing your medical practitioner.

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Tabata Anything – Four Minutes of Pain to Gain

The Tabata protocol is a high-intensity training regimen that produces remarkable results. A Tabata workout (also called a Tabata sequence) is an interval training cycle of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated without pause 8 times for a total of four minutes. In a group context, you can keep score by counting how many lifts/jumps/whatever you do in each of the 20 second rounds. The round with the smallest number is your score.

Credit for this simple and powerful training method belongs to its namesake, Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Their groundbreaking 1996 study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, provided documented evidence concerning the dramatic physiological benefits of high-intensity intermittent training. After just 6 weeks of testing, Dr. Tabata noted a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity in his subjects, along with a 14% increase in their ability to consume oxygen (V02Max). These results were witnessed in already physically fit athletes. The conclusion was that just four minutes of Tabata interval training could do more to boost aerobic and anaerobic capacity than an hour of endurance exercise.

Although Dr. Tabata used a mechanically braked exercise cycle machine, you can apply this protocol to almost any exercise. For example, a basic Tabata workout can be performed with sit-ups. The more muscles used the better, so use full knees-bent sit-ups. Sit-up non-stop for 20-second intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for a total of 8 cycles.

How effective can just 4 minutes of exercise be? … Very. You will be amazed at how intense the four minutes of exercise will feel. The intervals tax both your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. To be clear, this isn’t “eight sets of eight,” although the goal of doing eight reps in each of the 20-second clusters is about right. Instead it’s “as many reps as I can get in” during the twenty seconds, followed by ten seconds rest.

It helps to be able to see a wall clock with a second hand during your four minutes of fun. Stop at twenty seconds, rest ten seconds, and go again. Watching the clock helps with your focus and also in keeping count of the eight cycles…

Here is a longer Tabata workout example. This workout consists of 4 separate Tabata Intervals, each 4 minutes. The total workout will last 16 minutes. Always begin with a moderate warm-up and cool down session. And if you are not already in good shape, check with a doctor before trying.

* Jump Rope

* Pushups

* Squats

* Chin-ups or Pull-ups

Note the 10-second rest periods in the Tabata workout are important, both physically and mentally. Not only do they allow partial recovery, they also provide psychological relief. Switching back and forth from work to rest makes the workout go quickly. Plus, it allows you to train at a higher level of intensity, which what intervals are all about.

Another good exercise for Tabatas is the “squat thruster.” The squat thruster is one of the great lifts being made popular by organizations such as CrossFit. Take two dumbbells and hold them at shoulder height. Squat down, pushing your rear-end back, keeping the dumbbells on the shoulders. As you rise up, press the bells to the overhead lockout position. You can either press as you rise or use the momentum to help “kick” the bells overhead. Keep your weight in your heals and go light! A 25 pound dumbbell in each hand is a very difficult thruster workout!

Pretty much any form of cardiovascular exercise that uses a large number of muscles can be tailored to fit Tabata interval workouts, so feel free to be creative. In addition to the exercises mentioned above, use them with sprints, burpees, a jump rope, the heavy bag, treadmill or rowing machine. Lessen the likelihood of injury by choosing a rate of intensity suited to your level of conditioning – be conservative. Incorporate variety into your Tabata workouts. A few sessions per week will offer plenty of intensity.

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