GO Exercise

Swimming is a great alternative to running or biking, for those seeking a novel cardiovascular workout. Many people find swimming to be refreshing and fun, a great advantage in its own right. Furthermore, swimming in water can allow the freest range of motion to our bodies, which helps us work all of our muscles to the maximal extent. When swimming, our bodies do not experience any impact, as they would in a run, and as a result swimming is far better for those with joint pain or back problems. Because there is no equipment involved other than our own bodies, we are free to move in the most natural way during a swim. Cyclists, by contrast, must adjust their movements to conform to the bicycle, which can lead to discomfort or even injury. Lastly, strong swimming is a great skill to develop, and it just may make the difference in a lifesaving situation.

Our bodies are fine-tuned machines that combust fuel (food) in a chemical reaction with oxygen (derived from the atmosphere we breathe) to generate energy. If we don’t eat, we will find our bodies weaker, unable to generate energy without fuel. And of course if we don’t breathe, or if we reduce the concentration of oxygen that we breathe, we will also find it more difficult to generate energy.

At higher altitudes, the atmosphere is thinner, and so it is more difficult to perform strenuous activities. Even everyday exhertion, like a brisk walk, can prove difficult for a person who has just arrived in a high altitude location from a low altitude origin.

This presents athletes with an opportunity to supercharge their cardiovascular systems. By training at high altitudes, where oxygen is scarce, they can improve their body’s ability to extract performance out of smaller amounts of oxygen. When they return to lower altitudes, they will experience a respiratory boost, and be in better condition than athletes who have engaged in comparable training at a low altitude.

It’s a widely known fact of exercise that spot training doesn’t work. You cannot remove the fat on your stomach by performing situps; you must reduce your fat intake and increase your fat burn, and then you will experience a body-wide reduction of fat.

Yet people persist in spot training, and some even feel they see it work. What gives?

The answer is that many people are more concerned with external appearance than with the actual composition of their bodies. It’s true that you cannot remove fat from your belly with situps, but you can improve your saggy appearance. By strengthening the stomach and core muscles, you can make your trunk firmer, and fat will be held up rather than droop. Although it will not be gone, you may find an improved waistline and visually you will appear more fit.

We know about the positive impact of exercise on muscles, and the cardiovascular system. But can exercise make your skin healthier? It depends how you wash up when you’re done! Vigorous exercise makes us prespire, opening the pores and cleansing them of accumulated contaminants. Especially if we drink well before and after, a vigorous workout flushes out our system, epidermis included.

But letting all that sweat sit on our skin is obviously not good – it can lead to pimples and rashes, and doesn’t smell great either. So treat yourself to a nice hot shower immediately after exercise, and also be sure to scrub off with a rough towel. This will gently remove any dead skin cells, leaving you with a lustery glow.

Even as snow falls outside and we gather with our families for the holidays, we know that spring, with its warm weather and revealing clothing, is just around the corner. Will we be ready?

The new year is a great time to rededicate yourself to a fitness regimen. The holidays break up the monotony of our routines, and we have the opportunity to reinvent our schedules to make time for exercise. If you’re an equipment junkie, you may find that giving yourself some good exercise equipment as a Christmas present will get you back on track. Or sign up for a class in a new sport or martial art!

Sometimes it seems like no matter what we do, we just can’t get our bodies to strengthen further. We plateau and just keep doing the same exercise week after week with no change.

One great way to jumpstart our bodies is to perform the same exercise, with lower weights, in slow motion. The gradual motion, when controlled properly, isolates individual muscles and insures that each is worked to it’s maximum capacity. You should feel a dramatic increase of intensity if you double the duration of each lift, and, just as important, each gradual lowering of the weight.

Be sure to eat and drink well after a workout like this; your body will need it!

The simplest way to exercise your abdomen is the good, old fashioned “crunch”. Lying on your back, bend your knees to roughly right angles. Fold your hands on your chest, and slowly raise your head, then lower it back down. Be sure to use your stomach muscles specifically – the best way to do this is to intentionally flatten your back before you begin the crunch. Make a conscious effort to touch your back down to the floor one vertabrae at a time, like a scorpion unfolding.

When you want to work the sides of your abdomen, perform the same exercise with your legs bent sideways, so they lie flat on the floor, first to one side, then the other.

It might sound trivial, but it really helps you understand what’s going on with your body when you exercise if you know your heart rate. To get a sense of your resting heart rate and your maximum heart rate, take your pulse twice, before and after vigorous exercise. You can use two fingers against the base of your jaw to feel the pulse.

As you continue your training, check your pulse right after a strong aerobic workout. You will find that with time your pulse will decrease. This is a sign that your cardiovascular system is becoming stronger, and is capable of oxygenating your blood with less effort.

Many of us invest a lot of time in planning our exercise routine, and not just the exercises – we think about what equipment we use, we eat before, what we drink after, how we stretch, taking a hot bath or shower, and of course what we wear. But there is one detail that tends to be overlooked – the temperature in the room!

Ideally you want to vary the temperature of your exercise space during the course of your workout; while this is not practical in a public space like a health club, you can do it at home. At the beginning of the workout, keep the room warm, and you will have an easier time stretching to loosen your muscles and getting your blood flowing. As you progress through the routine, you will build up body heat and find the room to be uncomfortable, that is the time to cool it off a bit so you don’t overheat. Some people believe that it is actually good to maintain the heat throughout, in order to increase weight loss due to prespiration. While doing this occasionally may help cleanse the pores of impurities and shed excess water, doing it on a regular basis can lead to dehydration and headaches. If you do opt for the hot exercise room, be sure to consume plenty of cold drinks before and after your workout to be sure your body is not deprived of the fluids it needs.

If you’re running or playing outdoor sports, of course, you don’t have control over the surrounding temperature. But you can still control the temperature of your muscles with clothing, and of the air you breathe with a baclava, which will make exercise more comfortable during the colder season, especially for those with respiratory issues.

You need fluid after exercising, to replace water lost through prespiration. You need a little sodium, to replace lost salt, and some electrolytes. A little nutrition is good too.

But do you need a specially “manufactured” sports drink? Of course not! Everything you need is found in nature. Just dilute orange or cranberry juice with a lot of water, add a pinch of salt, and you are all set!

The sports drink craze may not be harmful to your health, but it isn’t necessary either.