Jeffrey Rose asked:


The importance that exercise plays in the health of the individual is now universally recognized. Everyone should be incorporating exercise into their life as a regular part of their life routine. As true as this is, there are special reasons why regular exercise helps those in recovery lead a healthier life. Exercise improves a person’s outlook on life and raises their sense of well being. This eliminates any desire to reach for a drug to artificially improve how you feel in life. Many people have used drugs in the past to compensate for negative feelings. However, if you greatly alleviate, or even totally eliminate these negative feelings, your need to compensate for them with drugs will no longer exist. This is exactly what happens to most people when they embark on and carry through with a program of regular exercise.

When you hear the word “exercise” do you think of it as something that is pleasant or unpleasant, as fun or work? How you feel about exercise plays a role in how often you will do it? Have fun when you exercise because if you are having fun when you exercise, you will automatically find it more pleasant. Focus on how good it feels to move your body. Remember also, if life makes you stressed and tense, exercise automatically releases stress and tension and gives you more energy. You can’t help feeling better about life and yourself too. So think of exercise as a wonderful way to make yourself feel better in just a short amount of time.

If you’re feeling stressed and down, exercising will pick you up and make you feel better and more resourceful. And by releasing stress, you will no longer be drained of energy from stressors and tension creating situations that occur in your daily life. What did you do in the past when you had a stressful day? Did you hurt yourself by doing unhealthy things like overeat, drink, smoke or worse? Now you will be making a conscious choice to do what makes you healthier, while achieving the exact same goals of relieving your daily stress and making yourself better, with fun exercise. You’ll have made a new commitment to yourself to treat yourself better by respecting your physical being and becoming healthier and healthier.

Later on in this article I will discuss an often neglected aspect of the health promoting qualities of exercising, but first I want to discuss what types of exercises are best for you.

The most valuable exercise and the most valuable piece of equipment for doing this exercise is obvious, but usually not known by most personal trainers, who often seem to have a particular favorite regardless of the individual they are advising. It is, to put it succinctly, any exercise that you will enjoy doing regularly. People often ask fitness advisors what piece of equipment they should buy to work out on. Well, the correct answer is the one you will enjoy using and thus will use consistently and regularly. For example one person might enjoy a rowing machine in their home, while another might enjoy a treadmill. While, again, another might enjoy using a climber or stair-like workout piece of equipment. People have different tastes, and that must be recognized and acted upon. Just because your friend has an exercise bike at home, doesn’t mean you should get one instead of say, an elliptical trainer that you would find more fun.

Often people are being advised to “watch television when you work out,” I, on the other hand, typically advise my clients, to “work out when you watch television.” When you are listening to your favorite music, you can also work out at the same time. If you have time to watch your favorite TV shows or again, if you have time to listen to some of your favorite albums, then, right there, you DO have time to work out, which can be done at the very same time. You probably have noticed that there are television sets in fitness centers. This strategy can easily be applied within your home. So have the equipment right there in your television room, and get on it whenever you watch television. In fact, a sedentary life style created by people spending hours sitting in front of a TV can be totally turned around, so that watching TV becomes the thing that propels you along the new path of getting a lot of exercise into your life. You don’t even have to go to a gym, you don’t even have to go outside, and you don’t even have to set aside extra time, just do it while you are watching your favorite TV programs in your own home.

Of course, you can also get good exercise and fresh air at the same time with an outside exercise such as walking, jogging or biking. However, you should only do these if you enjoy them. Since running can leave some people with wear and tear injury because of its impact nature, walking is more highly recommended because it is much safer.

It might surprise some of you that I believe that strength training is equally as important to good health as aerobic exercise. Doing aerobic exercise can improve the strength of your muscles, but only up to a certain point because a particular aerobic exercise will provide only so much resistance, so that after awhile, you are only maintaining the muscle you have already developed and not building any more muscle. The value of strength training for the health of every individual is becoming more and more recognized in the fitness world. It is now accepted that working out with heavy resistance provides benefits far beyond just being stronger and looking better.

Today using heavier resistance, moving at very very slow tempos, in both directions, and quickly reaching the point of failure, when you just cannot move the resistance any longer, is considered the best form of strength training. At the moment when your body tries but cannot overcome and move the resistance any longer, your muscle will signal your body to stimulate muscle growth to increase your muscle’s strength, and also improve the metabolic functions employed in the use of your muscles, so that any future challenge can be more easily met. Maintaining a slow rate of movement in both directions eliminates the effects of momentum, and counters the effects of gravity as the weight inside the workout machine is being lowered. This system of slow training with heavy resistance creates a more intense and productive workout while lessening any potential injury to the body, both through the very slow speed of movement and the reduced number of repetitions. This is the form of strength training I recommend, both to achieve the results you desire and protect you from any injuries. Because of the large increase of the resistance you will be dealing with, this method of working out is best done only using exercise machines, rather them free weights. In addition, proper form must be maintained at all times, both to prevent injury and insure you will get a proper workout that will provide all the benefits that are intended. When people hurry through their strength training by doing many rushed repetitions instead of going slowly, and jerk the weight, twist their body, clench their teeth and hold their breath, they are doing wrong things that will only keep them from making good progress in a safe way. I want to further reiterate that no matter what type of weight training you do, it is essential that you breathe freely and never ever hold your breath.

The positive side of this increased effort from using much heavier resistance, and slower and fewer repetitions in your fitness center’s machines, is that your sessions working out can be much much shorter in duration. With this new method that is more and more recognized as the best way to train, you can be finished with your complete workout in a surprisingly short time while achieving better results than you might have experienced the regular way. Strength training this way strengthens your bones, improves your cardiovascular health, improves your flexibility, makes your joints more stable and less prone to injury, and by improving your metabolism, helps you replace fat with muscle! Your added muscle will make everything in life easier to do and make you feel more energetic, thus, raising your spirit and mood.

Some people promote weight training as the complete answer to becoming and staying fit and insist that there is no additional need to be active. The truth is that even were you to work out with very heavy weights a couple of times a week, if you aren’t staying active the rest of the week you will not be able to maintain your health. The reason for this is that an integral part of keeping yourself healthy and young is the working of your body’s lymphatic system. Unfortunately this aspect of staying healthy has not received the attention it really deserves. This system is particularly important for the health of anyone in recovery since its main role is detoxification. Most people who have abused drugs have taken in and inundated their body’s systems with toxins. It is very important for those in recovery to do all that they are able to remove these substances from their bodies as quickly and thoroughly as possible. And then, because of a need to continue to feel and be healthy to stay away from drugs, those in recovery should remain on a program that keeps their bodies detoxified and clean.

The lymphatic system is the metabolic cleanser of the body. It draws in and carries toward disposal the many substances that need to be removed for the cleansing and detoxification of the body’s systems, including toxins, dead cells, cancer cells, nitrogenous wastes, fatty globules, pathogenic bacteria, infectious viruses, foreign substances, heavy metals, and other waste byproducts that the cells give off. However unlike the blood’s circulatory system which has the heart to pump the blood through its system, the lymph system lacks a pump to move the lymph fluid with all its waste through its many capillaries and ducts toward disposal. It is absolutely vital that the lymph fluids continue to flow in order to eliminate waste from the body, otherwise the toxicity of the body will increase leading to poor health and disease. Using a set of one way valves, lymph is moved along the vessels of the lymph system by the movement and contraction of the muscles during activity. Now you understand why just working out once a week, is not enough even though that will give you more muscle, stronger bones and a better working metabolism to burn calories to become and stay thinner. Spending the rest of the time sitting in your office 9 to 5 during the day, and in front of your television as a passive and sedentary person during the evening, will not keep your lymph system properly active to promote health. Without regular exercise, the toxicity of the body would build up because of a relatively inactive lymph system.

One very good exercise that is fun and can be done while watching television or listening to music is rebounding. Running or jumping up and down in place on a rebounder burns calories effectively. Using one of these mini-trampolines is remarkably gentle on ones joints and avoids the wear and tear of other similar activities, and it can burn as many or even more calories as other similar activities like running and jumping rope.

But more importantly, in regard to our present discussion on detoxification during recovery, this bouncing activity, running or jumping on a rebounder, effectively moves and recycles the lymph within the lymphatic system. In the end, it is very effective for detoxification and for continuing to keep your body in a cleaner less toxic state.

Those of you who have not been exercising and keeping your body in the best of health are going to be surprised and delighted with how much better you will be feeling and enjoying life when you have a stronger body and you are getting a lot of health enhancing exercise.

prabakar asked:


Normal 0

Exercise is also known as aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise uses your large muscles and can be continued for long periods. For example, walking, jogging, swimming, and cycling are aerobic activities. These types of exercises drive your body to use oxygen more efficiently and deliver maximum benefits to your heart, lungs, and circulatory system.

 

Strength-building and flexibility exercises are known as anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise does not have cardiovascular benefits, but it makes your muscles and bones stronger. Strength-building exercises require short, intense effort. Flexibility exercises, which are also anaerobic, tone your muscles through stretching and can prevent muscle and joint problems later in life. A well-balanced exercise program should include some type of exercise from each category. A simple definition of cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate to a level where you can still talk, but you start to sweat a little.

 

At least 20 minutes of exercise 3 or 4 days a week should be enough to maintain a good fitness level. Any movement is good, even house or yard work. But if your goal is to lose weight, you will need to do some form of cardiovascular exercise for 4 or more days a week for 30 to 45 minutes or longer.

 

The ideal exercise program starts with a 5- to 10-minute warm-up, which includes gentle movements that will slightly increase your heart rate. Then, slowly move into 20 or more minutes of a cardiovascular exercise of your choice, such as aerobics, jogging on a treadmill, or walking, to reach what is called your target heart rate. Your target heart rate is a guideline that can help you measure your fitness level before the start of your program and help you keep track of your progress after you begin an exercise program. Target heart rate also lets you know how hard you are exercising. If you are beginning an exercise program, you should aim for the low end of your target heart rate zone. If you exercise regularly, you may want to work out at the high end of the zone.

 

To stay within your target heart rate zone, you will need to take your pulse every so often as you exercise. You can find your pulse in 2 places: at the base of your thumb on either hand, or at the side of your neck. Put your first 2 fingers over your pulse and count the number of beats within a 10-second period. Multiply this number by 6, and you will have the number of heartbeats in a minute. For example, if you counted your pulse to be 20 during the 10-second pulse count, your heart rate would be 120 beats per minute. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/

 

 

Kevin Gianni asked:


This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Dr. Jason Deitch shares on taking responsibility for our own health and understanding the health care account option.

Dr. Deitch is the co-author of the best-selling book “Discover Wellness: How Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich.” Dr. Deitch is also the founder of Discover Wellness Center and the Chief Wellness Officer of the Master’s Circle and WellCall, Inc.

Kevin: We’re about 20 minutes into the call. I just want to remind you that you can find out more information about Dr. Jason at this address: www.discoverwellnesscenter.com. Dr. Deitch, I want to take it back to the consumer here and I want to talk about this team. This team sounds a little bit overwhelming. From someone that may be thinking they don’t have the money to be supporting a team to help with their health. What can you say about that?

Dr. Deitch: Yeah. That’s always one of the first things that comes up. Here’s my belief on this. The reality is that more people these days have a greater financial stake in their health or sickness than ever before. There’s a growing trend that I predict will continue to grow, obviously depending on what happens as our new president comes in and what policies may take place, but the reality will be no matter what happens, consumers will be at greater risk financially the more they are at greater risk with their health. Thuat’s just going to be the trend.

So what really needs to happen for people is they have to realize that their health is their responsibility. Our health is our responsibility. Up until recently I believe that the consciousness that people have had, consumers have had, is that, “If it has to do with my health it should be covered by my insurance.” It’s the only place in our economy that we believe should be free and taken care of. I think it’s our responsibility as providers to start waking people up to the facts.

The facts are that your health insurance is really more like your car insurance. Most people don’t expect their car insurance to cover gas and tires and wipers and even little minor fender-benders. Most everybody knows that if you go to your insurance if you have even a minor fender-bender, what’s going to happen to your insurance rates? They’re going to go up. So most people have been trained to Understand that. In healthcare we haven’t gotten that point across. We need to.

The trend that I predict and we write about in the book, our last chapter is “Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich” is really all about the new trend of high- deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts. There may be some controversy about it. It’s not perfect for everyone in every circumstance but there is a large population of people that they’re great for that really could be putting pre-tax dollars into their own health savings accounts that would allow them to do one of two things. I think this is the opportunity and I think this is really where it gets, not everybody but most people most of the time are going to benefit and be able to use dollars to be able to invest in their health by using what I think of as inexpensive healthcare modalities. One of two things will happen. Either you’ll be able to use your health savings account money when recommended by a doctor for qualified medical expenses… A chiropractor is the perfect type of doctor because they tend to be holistic by nature and this ties back into creating a wellness network. So under the laws, and if those people who are using health savings accounts, when a service is recommended by a doctor, by a chiropractor perhaps, it could be a naturopath or others, that service then can be qualified, may be qualified, obviously check your laws and all of those things to not misinterpret what I’m saying, but those are qualified expenses to be paid for with pre-tax dollars. Now that gives you an instant 30 to 40 percent, depending on your tax bracket, savings on these types of services, which is tremendous.

The best opportunity really is for people to understand that when they are investing in their health and these types of services that they are in fact able to also save and kind of create an additional retirement fund. So if you’re not able to use your health savings account money, let that accumulate, you can in fact accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime, if you start early enough, for your retirement. You’ll probably use this money sooner or later at some point in time, but to be able to accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars of pre-tax dollars as an additional retirement account, gives you a very good incentive to want to do what you can to get well and stay well. I believe, as I said, for most people, most of the time, getting and staying well is a majority of the things you can do for yourself. Then you have additional support and help from those providers who can help you with the things that you can’t necessarily do for yourself.

Kevin: Right. Some people may not know exactly what a health savings account is. Can you just briefly explain that? I didn’t realize that they can accrue interest. Is that correct?

Dr. Deitch: Yes, they do accrue interest. It’s very much like an IRA or an additional retirement account of sorts. You accumulate your money. You get to keep it. It’s yours. That’s the incentive. That’s the point. And that is really the essence of how staying healthy can make you financially rich. We mean rich in all sense of the word. We know that richness in life is your ability to have freedom and freedom comes from your ability to be healthy and well and make the choices you want to make because you’re not hindered by some sort of health condition that prevents you from doing that. But financially, yes, you can retire with hundreds of thousands of dollars if you follow this program that we talk about in the book, by following these recommendations.

A health savings account is something that has recently become popular, because of new laws passed only two years ago, that is a bank account that you have to have a high-deductible health plan, a qualifying high-deductible insurance program plan that would allow you to then get a health savings account and put, every year it changes, it’s approximately 2,900 dollars per year or approximately over 5,000 dollars for a family, to put that money, pre-tax like you would a retirement account, pre-tax, into your own account that is your money. If you don’t spend it you keep it. I think that is a tremendous incentive for people to invest in their well being so they don’t have to spend it. It’s there if you need it and many of us are going to require a greater and greater security blanket. After several years you can have tens of thousands of dollars in your own account, which again is pre-tax dollars to spend on any type of healthcare or medical care that may be necessary to supplement these high deductibles 2, 3, 4, 5 thousand dollars at a time. If you’re doing this properly you’ll have that money in an account so you in fact don’t really have the risk that you may have even if you go through a traditional insurance program.

People think that if you have a low deductible, maybe 500 or 1,000 dollars, which used to be traditional, that you were in a much safer position. What people need to learn more about are these new types of plans. If you do find yourself having high expenses in many cases the low-deductible plans also may have what they call an 80/20 policy where you’re still responsible for 20 percent of your co-payments. Your out of pocket expense can add up very quickly if you were to need and use your insurance. The high-deductible plans, although you’re responsible for your first deductible, maybe 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 dollars, many of these plans cover you 100 percent once you’ve covered your deductible. So depending on your perspective and your attitude as to how you choose to use your insurance will depend on really how you use it. I think that there is a tremendous education for most people to realize that it’s far better to put that money into your own pocket, far better for you to become more responsible for your own health, accumulate those dollars, have access to any type of provider you would like to see and pay them directly for it. Because the reverse psychology is that many people, and I know people and I’m sure you do too Kevin, that go, “I pay a fortune for my health insurance. I’ve got a sniffle, I’ve got a sneeze, I’ve got an ache and a pain, I’m going to the doctor because I’m paying for it. I’m going to get my money’s worth.” There’s a lot of critics that may argue that people don’t get the care that they need. I will argue that there are too many people that are almost hypochondriacs about it because they think that they’ve got to go get care because they’re paying for it.

I just don’t think consumers are yet educated enough consumers. And that’s our job, that’s our role. I think that’s the potential that’s going to really help a new paradigm come into place. Doctor means teacher and as healthcare providers I don’t think our job is to do things to people, it’s really to teach them a better way. We will see how things evolve with our new president but there must be a better way. I promise you one thing, we can’t afford the existing system much longer.

Robert Bauer asked:


We live in a diet crazed world. Despite the fact a large number of our population is dieting and focusing on weight loss, the obesity epidemic continues to grow.

The reason the problem is getting worse is because people are falling for diet scams. They switch from one top 10 fad diet to the next while they search for diet plan secrets that cure obesity.

The truth about dieting is something we don’t want to hear. It takes hard work and determination to lose weight and there is no magic fat loss pill.

The Truth about Top 10 Fad Diets

Not all diets are alike. Even the most popular weight loss programs like the South Beach Diet and the Atkins Diet end their similarities at the word diet. In fact, there are few diet plans available to help you achieve fat loss and improve your overall health.

Fad diets are spun off of research tidbits. Often times the top 10 fad diets have not even been tested. Worse yet, some diets have been proven harmful to your health. Most fad diets are simply scams intended to make money off of overweight, unsuspecting individuals. Sadly, many of them succeed.

Ultimately what happens when you follow a fad deit is that you’ll lose a few pounds initially, stall out when you reach a plateau, and start to feel deprived and hungry all the time. Eventually frustration wins out and you return to your old ways of eating what made you overweight in the first place. Because you feel deprived, you are more likely to binge on the foods you crave and gain back the weight you lost along with additional weight.

The bottom line seems to be: fad diets actually make you gain weight over the long haul. Bouncing from one top 10 fad diet to the next worsens the situation as your body adjusts and goes into starvation mode.

Total fasting, or ‘the starvation plan’, as the only weight loss strategy, is not the answer to your problem. Each time you diet in this way, you lose fat, water and muscle and each time you gain, you gain only fat. That’s why it gets harder and harder to shed the unwanted pounds.

The bottom line seems to be: fad diets actually make you gain weight over the long haul. Bouncing from one top 10 fad diet to the next worsens the situation as your body adjusts and goes into starvation mode.

The Reason Overweight People Turn to Top 10 Fad Diets

When people decide that they have had enough of being overweight, it suddenly becomes a top priority to lose weight. They want instant gratification and are drawn in by diet scams that promise fast weight loss.

Most people think that the more money they spend on a product, the better effect it will have on their weight loss program. The problem with these diet fads is that even if their weight loss tips do help you lose a few pounds in the beginning, you will not be able to reach your weight loss goal and maintain it.

Few diets actually focus on the healthy lifestyle changes that it takes to lose fat and keep it off.

The Truth about Common Sense Diets

The truth about common sense dieting is that the only way to lose weight, improve your health and improve your quality of life is to eat healthier foods and exercise.

A common sense diet details what to eat and drink and provides a “simple plan” for success. Knowing what key foods to eat and when, is half the battle for fat loss.

Starvation diets and over-exercising don’t work. They leave you feeling weak and deprived. Eating certain healthy organic and whole foods at the right times during the day, in large enough portions to feel full and satisfied is the key to weight loss and is the focus of healthy weight loss programs.

Cliff Baker asked:


Anaerobic exercise is mainly associated with muscle building or weight lifting. Technically all types of anaerobic exercises are described as movements that are carried out “without oxygen.”

This means that on a molecular level, the cells are not requiring additional oxygen through heavy breathing to accomplish the move. Weight lifters still breathe but they are not in an oxygen deficit constantly like aerobic exercisers are as they raise their heart rate while exercising.

The principle of needing less oxygen is just the exact opposite of aerobic exercises, which require more oxygen and an accelerated heartbeat to work properly. Aerobic exercises include such activities as cycling, jumping rope, swimming, spinning on a stationary cycle, rebounding and running.

Different types of anaerobic exercises are typically used in non-endurance sports to build muscle mass. Muscles that are training under anaerobic conditions develop in a different way then muscles that are training for activities that are of a short duration.

Muscles bulk up quickly and becoming very strong. This is due to the contraction and protraction of muscle fibers, which work a lot harder without the oxygen constantly being pumped into the lungs as the result of the body going into a deficit.

Muscle training works differently because it forces the body to use processes that are not dependent on oxygen to produce energy. In fact the ideal intention of many types of anaerobic exercises is to make muscles work harder. Muscles that don’t have sufficient oxygen to meet the demands of the activity bulk up. This does not mean that the body does not receive any oxygen at all when you are working anaerobically in a gymnasium. It just means that you are not using as much oxygen as if you were jogging or swimming.

Anaerobic exercise involves muscular effort, usually short bursts of activity followed by periods of rest. Types of anaerobic exercises include rowing, push-ups, pull-ups, tug of war, sit-ups and squats.

All weight lifting exercises are also anaerobic in nature. Many types of anaerobic exercises associated with weightlifting include working with pulleys, medicine balls and slant boards. These are not expansive exercise and are typically performed in a gym or weight room. This is very unlike an aerobic exercise, which usually requires that the body travel unless you are using a training machine such as a stationary bicycle.

Different types of anaerobic exercises can also be used as part of interval training. Interval training is a very efficient way to lose weight and build muscle.

Interval training involves practicing different types of anaerobic exercises such as weight lifting in tandem with aerobic exercises such as cycling, jogging and jumping rope. The combination of both exercises is an effective way to lose weight and keep it off for good.

Even better, practicing anaerobic exercises can help you build lean muscle. Lean muscle keeps on burning fat long after you stop exercising. This is why anaerobic exercise is such an important component of an exercise program that is geared towards achieving weight loss.