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Posts Tagged ‘fitness and health’

The New Year will soon arrive with much expectation. Many of us will be writing our New Year resolutions with some trepidation. Others write with great motivation. Are New Year resolutions meant to be broken? For some, yes, but most people will give it a shot.

For those whose resolution is to keep fit and healthy and enjoy life looking and feeling fantastic, then this article is for you and to motivate you to keep to your resolution successfully.

Different people exercise and workout for different reasons. Some want to be macho looking hunks, some want their fitness to be at their peak, some to lose weight and body fat and most people just want to gain muscle to have a well toned and attractive body. But whether you workout in a gym for general health and fitness purpose or to lose body fat and gain muscle to look attractively desirable, you will reap tons of fitness and health benefits whether you workout in a gym, at home or in a park. In fact unless you want to gain big muscle, it is not necessary to join a gym to reap the benefit of having a great workout. This will save you the hefty gym fees too.

For all those of you who workout regularly, you will be glad to know whatever reasons that compel you to workout, there are many more reasons for you to continue doing so.
For those of you who don’t exercise at all, hey folks, these benefits are what you have been missing out.

• Better blood circulation will add a glow to your skin and hair. Not only will you be fit and healthy will have a glowing complexion. Where do you think the saying “Glowing with Health” came from?

• Lose weight or more accurately, to lose body fat. Yes, losing weight and losing fat although being used interchangeably to mean the same thing, it is not. By saying lose weight, it could mean you are loosing water, waste, and worse of all, you your muscle. Losing body fat merely meant what it says, fat loss. That will give you an attractive physical appearance.

• Exercise are excellent stress reliever. This is because when you workout and when your exercises are intensive enough, you will produce endorphin. Many call this a happy hormone.

• Increases bone density and therefore keeping osteoporosis a bone disease afflicting most women as they age at bay. Your bone will be wasting away along with your muscles. Therefore you must exercise to build strong bones and retain your muscle mass.

• When you exercise, your muscles get stronger and grow. The more muscle fiber you have, the higher is your body metabolism. The higher your body metabolism, the more body fat you will burn. That is why to lose weight permanently, you have to gain muscle.

• Gain strength and endurance. That flight of stairs will no longer be as daunting. The football game you play will be a breeze. Why? Because as your fitness level builds up, day to day chores become easier and you will enjoy whatever you do without tiring so easily because of the increased physical fitness gained through regular exercise.

• Reducing your chances of getting heart diseases, stroke and certain types of cancers which are the top killer diseases. There are many other diseases which exercises will cut down the risks of them afflicting you.

• Reduce triglycerides and bad cholesterol, raising the level of good cholesterol. Again this will protect you from diseases caused by bad cholesterol.

• Protects you against injuries as you are fitter and more nimble. You are also more flexible and will discover a new gait in your movement. Boy, it sure feels good to be in good health isn’t it?

• Improve immunity. Save your doctor’s bills! This means putting more money in your pocket!

• Hmmm… enhance sexual desire and performance. Remember we talked about endorphin, the happy hormone earlier? You also produce this hormone when you are having sex. Getting more interesting isn’t it?

• Lower resting heart rate and high blood pressure. That means your general cardiovascular or heart health will improve.

• Improve coordination and balance. Ask the lady for a dance, will ya?

• Regulate insulin sensitivity thus prevention of type 2 diabetes. Thus you will not put on weight so easily and in fact may even lose weight.

• Increase confidence and self esteem. Of course you can walk tall and proud because you will have improved your posture holding up your new found musculature, glowing with health and a sexily toned body to the boot!

So get into your running shoes now and head for the gym now! Go ahead, lose weight and gain muscle for the New Year. Break this New Year resolution at your own peril.

Ensuring that you give your body the fuel it needs to build muscle is an important part of bodybuilding. Eating to build muscle is just as important as your weight lifting program or other bodybuilding routines.

Lifting weights forces your muscles to work hard, and can also cause minor injury to muscles. Although those injuries can heal very quickly, eating the right foods that build muscle can really speed up the process. Food supplies fuel that the body needs, and the right food can do wonders.

Food that helps build muscle ? what it is? Well, to begin with, protein. Protein is probably the most important nutritional component in a muscle building program. You probably thought the most important component was cutting out fat, in order to reduce your body fat, didn’t you? Well, it is not. Protein is essential. Without protein, your body withers away to nothing. So make sure you include protein foods that build muscle such as chicken, lean beef, eggs, fish (don’t like fresh fish? Try canned tuna ?it’s perfect), and cheese.

Finding out how much protein to eat when you are interested in building muscle fast is actually not difficult. First, you will need to find out your lean body mass weight in kilos, and then you simply multiply that figure by 2.75 to determine your daily protein requirement. Calculating your lean body mass uses some complex formulae, so ask a professional at the gym if you do not already have this figure.

Foods that build muscle include carbohydrates. Many uninformed people believe that all carbs should be eliminated in order to obtain a fit, lean body. Nothing could be further from the truth. So long as the carbohydrates you ingest include plenty of fibre, carbs will contribute to building muscle mass ? not body fat. Great carbohydrate based foods include rice, oatmeal, bananas and other types of fruit such as apples and pears.

Reducing fat in your diet is of course necessary to build bigger muscle on a body that appears lean and has a low body fat ratio. If you are focussing on what foods build muscle mass, you also need to bear in mind that it pays to reduce fat as well. Although proteins are essential (as we talked about earlier), it is really important to select proteins that are low in fat, or that you can cut the fat off. So eat your chicken without the skin, and go for lean steaks rather than more fatty cuts of meat. Opting for cottage cheese or other reduced fat cheeses, and low fat milk also helps reduce your fat intake.

Drinking sufficient water with your meals, between meals, and while you are working out is also very important. Without sufficient water you will dehydrate, and you will be tired and lacking in energy, which gives no assistance at all to building your muscle with the right type of food.

Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day (even 12 glasses) is absolutely essential to allow your body to properly digest all the good food you are eating. For those who just cannot stomach the taste (or lack of taste) of so much water, other types of liquid although not quite as good are still acceptable as water substitutes ? fruit juice and even soft drinks can suffice as long as you (preferably) drink some of your liquid intake in water form.

Foods that build muscle are one of the two essential components to having the body of your dreams. The other component is your weight training program or other type of bodybuilding workouts that you engage in regularly. Just because you have found foods that build muscle does not mean you can start to slack off with your weight training.