How to get fit and healthy

Today, a whole load of people are affected by hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension is often called the silent killer because you have no early significant symptoms. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and renal failure.

What causes hypertension?

Heredity: If your parents have high blood pressure, you have a greater chance of inheriting it.

Age: The older we get, the greater the risk of developing high blood pressure.

Obesity: Overweight people are at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure.

Heavy alcohol consumption: Several studies have found that intake of excessive amounts of alcohol can raise your blood pressure. Keep in mind that heavy drinking and high blood pressure may damage the heart and can lead to heart attacks.

Diabetes: People with diabetes often have high blood pressure. Having both diabetes and hypertension will increase the risk of developing heart related problems.

Research has proven that an hour of exercise a week can reduce high blood pressure. With regular exercise, you can reduce the risk of developing hypertension by 19 to 30 percent. So there is that ray of hope for all those who have given up on it; it really is not very hard.

Regular exercise makes your heart strong. A strong heart can pump more blood with less effort. Therefore, the pressure on your arteries decreases, and lowers your blood pressure.

If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure at some point, engaging in regular exercise will help you maintain and achieve a healthy blood pressure level. You don’t need to spend hours in a gym every day. Simply adding moderate physical activities to your daily routine like walking, cycling, swimming etc will help you reduce hypertension and lead a healthy, happy life.

You can also do some Yoga for reducing hypertension; asanas such as, Surya Namaskar Asana, Santulam Asana, Pawanmukta Asana, Uttanpada Asana, and Shava Asana are immensely helpful.

It is however, best to check with your family doctor before you jump into an exercise program, especially if you’re unsure about your health, or feel any warning signs like chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, an irregular heartbeat etc.

Today, Asthma is a common disease that affects many people. The number of people affected by Asthma is now increasing all over the world. In the United States, over 22 million Americans have asthma.

So, what exactly is asthma? Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory respiratory disease that makes patients to find difficulty to get air in and out of the lungs. When a person is affected by asthma, the breathing tubes (alveolar tubes) become sensitive and inflamed. The muscles around the airways tighten and become narrow, thus making it difficult to breathe fresh air in and exhale air out.

The most common symptoms of asthma are wheezing, constant coughing, and chest tightness during the cold weather and shortness of breath.  Things like smoking, pollen, environmental pollutions, etc can trigger asthma.

Well, how can you treat asthma? Breathing exercises have become a very popular solution to reduce Asthma. Researchers from the UK University found that breathing exercises reduces the severity of asthma and improves quality of life with the help of anti-inflammatory medication treatment.

Effective breathing exercises commonly followed are:

• Pranayama (A Breathing exercise in Yoga)

• Buteyko (A Russian method of breathing exercise)

Pranayama: The regular practice of Pranayama helps us breathe deeply from the stomach. Pranayama is the art of breath control.  The word ‘Prana’ signifies’ breathe’ and ‘yama’ means ‘control’. Thus, the word Pranayama can be understood as “Control of breath”. There are four stages of breathing in pranayama.

1. Inhalation

2. A pause before exhalation

3. Exhalation

4. A pause before inhaling again

Repeat these four steps fifteen to twenty times. With the regular practice of Pranayama you can reduce asthma disease.

Buteyko: Buteyko exercise will reduce and control asthma and other respiratory disorders. In Buteyko techniques, you must inhale through the nose (not mouth), and exhale for as long as possible. You can repeat the process for 5 to 10 minutes and achieve better results.

Superbrain yoga is a simple exercise that helps to increase brain activity. It is purely based on the principles of subtle energy and ear acupuncture. Apart from activating the brain, it also assists in balancing the energies of the heart, throat, ajna, forehead and crown energy centers.
How to do Superbrain yoga?

Step 1: Hold the right earlobe with the left thumb and left index finger.
Step 2: Then, hold the left earlobe with the right thumb and right index finger.
Step 3: Continue to hold your lobes as you press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
Step 4: Inhale through your nose and slowly squat down to the ground.
Step 5: Hold your breath and do not exhale until you start making your way back up to a standing position.
Step 6: Repeat this action for at least 15 times.

Please make sure that you position the arms and fingers properly, and breathe correctly.
This exercise is in practice for several centuries in India. And they call it as Thopukaranam and generally done before Ganesh idol.

Today high blood pressure is one of the most serious health issues in the world. Aerobic exercise is a good way to avoid hypertension (high blood pressure). Not only does it manages blood pressure, but also adds years to your life by decreasing stress and reduces cholesterol levels. According to one study, patients with high blood pressure participating in aerobic exercise programs experienced a decrease in blood pressure when compared to patients who did not exercise.

Swimming, jogging, running, cycling, kickboxing, fitness walking, inline skating are all good forms of aerobic exercise. These types of exercises train the heart, lungs and cardiovascular system to process and deliver oxygen more quickly and efficiently to every part of the body. Apart from these, you can also try out other interesting activities such as dance aerobics, step aerobics, low impact aerobics and so on.

Here are some factors you should keep in mind before and after starting aerobic exercises:
1.  3-5 times per week of aerobic activity is fine.
2.  If you are running, do not do it for more than 20 minutes a day.
3.  Don’t start any kind of exercise suddenly and vigorously. A good idea is to start slowly and build up  to   a full program.
4.  Keep in mind, vigorous exercise immediately after a heavy meal might lead to a feeling of dizziness and even vomiting. So depending on a meal you have had, you must wait between 30 and 90 minutes, before you can exercise.
5.  After any aerobic activity, your body needs to calm down. This will bring the heart rate down to near-normal and get the blood circulating freely back to the heart.

Take part in regular aerobic exercises, live healthy, and have fun while doing it.

Stress at work is a new phenomenon which is a result of the modern lifestyle that we have adopted, whether in an office, a factory, or a school. Work stress affects individuals’ physiological and physical health. For instance, job stress may be caused by a complex set of reasons such as job insecurity, high demand for performance, work place culture, personal or family problems and so on. It leads to loss of mental concentration, depression, extreme anger and frustration, family conflict, and physical illnesses such as heart disease, migraine, headaches, stomach problems, and back problems.

Well, the only way to deal with stress at work is practicing yoga. It helps you solve problems keeping your emotions in control, and remaining calm. When you do yoga, you can juggle your roles more effectively, more smoothly, and more comfortably.

Obesity is one of the biggest threats that are leading to a very large number of health problems in the modern era. Our lives have become more inactive and our food patterns have changed over the last few years; this is the main reason for many adults and even children being overweight. Yoga plays a key role in losing weight. Body fat may be redistributed and burned as energy while doing yoga. Also, your metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids. Ultimately you reduce weight in a systematic way that your body can actually handle. It also gives your body that perfect shape. You can also get mental strength form yoga, as well as from meditation to gain a better control over your emotions, your body, your actions, and your diet for permanent weight loss.

Anyone who practices Yoga, over time, will gain self awareness, physical fitness, body alignment and mental strength, and helping them build self-confidence.

There are a variety of different yoga techniques that can be followed. Each yoga style is unique and focuses on specific spiritual, mental and physical disciplines. You can learn it by watching the various programmes on TV, or reading any article about yoga or simply attending classes, to let go of bad habits and improve your health.

What are you waiting for? Practice yoga and find yourself a new person with an increased self confidence.

By Julia Denham

Want to lose weight and feel great? Yoga is the answer: not only does it give you energy, it’s also a simple weight loss strategy so that you get healthy and look great.

When you use yoga for weight loss you never need to diet. You will find that your tastes change: your body will start demanding better fuel than you’re currently giving it. Your desires for junk food and too much food will vanish.

Here’s how to get started.

1. Find a Weight Loss Yoga Class

Your first step is to find a yoga for weight loss class — these have now become available at many yoga studios. The benefit of a weight loss class is that everyone else in the class is focused on weight loss too.

You’ll also find that your instructor modifies poses, so that they’re easier for you to manage. You’ll use blocks and other props so you can get the benefit of the pose, without straining.

2. Sun Salutations Move Your Body and Your Mind

Once you’ve learned several poses, it’s time to combine your poses into a routine which you can follow at home. The Sun Salutations series is a routine which is easy to follow, and which you’ll accomplish with ease.

As you lose weight and become more comfortable with yoga, you can simply do more rounds of Sun Salutations to enhance the effects.

3. Practice Yoga Meditation at Least Once a Day

Yoga meditation is essential. Most classes end with five or ten minutes of yoga meditation. Do the meditation at home too. The benefit of taking time for yoga meditation is that, just like yoga, the practice creates time. You’ll find that the ten minutes a day you spend on meditation steadies you, and helps your focus, so that you’re more productive both at work and at home.

4. Assess How a Food Feels After You’ve Eaten

As you become more used to yoga, you’ll find that you’re more in touch with your body. Some foods energize you, while others cause a slump. Start checking in with yourself an hour after you’ve eaten to assess how you feel.

You’ll soon discover which foods make you feel great, and which don’t.

5. Flow With the Changes Yoga Brings to Your Life

Yoga changes you. It unlocks the person you really are. Your life will change; flow with it.

Follow your impulses. Within a few short months of starting yoga, you’ll find that not only have you lost weight, but many areas of your life have changed for the better, far beyond your current expectations.

Discover yourself with yoga, a gentle form of stretching. Yoga strengthens both your body and mind, and is suitable for anyone, from children to seniors. Visit Easy Fab Yoga Blog at for daily yoga information, tips, and inspiration.

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Diabetes in various forms affects up to 5percent of the world population with 12 million diabetics in Western Europe alone. Of the different ways in which diabetes presents, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is probably the most commonly encountered genetic disease. NIDDM or Type II diabetes is multifactorial, depending also on environmental factors including obesity, sedentary lifestyles and nutritional imbalances.

Yoga has shown some beneficial results in curing diabetes. The yoga exercises that are prescribed for curing diabetes is different from hatha yoga exercise because it involves positions tailored to treat certain conditions, as well as meditation, relaxation and stretching exercises.

One of the studies conducted to cure diabetes was the one set up by the Yoga Biomedical Trust, founded in 1982 by biochemist Dr Robin Monro, and an Indian yoga research foundation which discovered that practicing yoga for 30 minutes a day for one month helped reduce blood glucose levels in some diabetics.

The yoga patients took part in one or two 90-minute sessions a week and were asked to practice at home. The classes included the specific yoga exercises of the spinal twist, the bow and abdominal breathing.

At the end of the 12 weeks blood sugar levels fell significantly in all patients in the group and were slightly raised in a control group which had not joined in the yoga sessions. Three yoga students managed to reduce their medication, including one man who had not changed his drug regime for 20 years.

It has been known for a long time that exercise is helpful for diabetics. Yoga therapy may help reduce stress levels which could play a part in maturity onset diabetes. But one drawback is that some patients would find it hard to keep up the regular sessions needed to sustain the benefit. All the patients said they would like to see these classes set up on a permanent basis but we don’t have the money.

It is not necessarily the exercise component of the yoga therapy package which is most important, because there is not enough physical exercise to account for the changes, but stress reduction has a lot to do with it. Stress hormones increase sugar levels in the blood. People also benefit from the stabilization of their moods which yoga brings, an increased feeling of well-being and a feeling of being more in control, which may help with their diet control.

Huda is an author and entrepreneur for 24By7 Money Making Home Business, a continuing education and business development company showing people how to build business success. Get No Obligation Tips And Training at practice-yoga-guide.

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By Jesse Miller

Yoga is another routine that you can adopt to keep yourself healthy and fit. With yoga routine you will not only ensure health and fitness but you will feel refreshed as well. It is common for most of us to put on weight by staying inactive or to put it simply leading a less active life. It is for this reason that exercises are there so that one can stay fit and healthy and lead an active life.

Although, most of us hate to exercise not only because we don’t have much time but it leaves it sweaty and tired. If you feel this way then the best alternative is to include yoga routine in your daily life. Yoga routine will make you feel fresh and your mind at peace. You can perform a yoga routine of 15-minutes long and feel the difference.

Given below are some yoga routines that will also help you increase flexibility.

1. Janushirsasana: Start by sitting on floor with the legs in front of you and straight. Now bend your left leg such that foot’s sole rests on inside thigh of the right leg. When done, bend forward with your arms raised and hold the right foot toe with both the hands. Bring your face as closer to it as you can and hold the position for a minute before returning to original position. Perform same for the other leg.

2. Shalabhasana: Start by lying flat on belly on the floor. Make sure that your arms are at the side. By balancing on the lower belly part, lift your arms, heads, legs and torso off the floor. Hold this position for one minute before gently returning to original position.

3. Dhanurasana: For this you have to lie flat on floor on belly. Now bend the knees and using your hands reach to reach back, get hold of the ankles. Now pull the legs up with the hands holding the ankles and lift the torso and head up. Stay in this position for one minute before gently returning to original position.

4. Halasana: For this lie on the floor on your back. Now try touching the tip of the floor that is above the head by lifting hips and legs and swinging them over to do so. Hold this position for one minute.

5. Shavasana: Lie on the floor on your back and close your eyes. Let your body feel weightless at the same time breathe slowly and deeply. Relax yourself by staying inthis position for one minute.

Finding the perfect Workout Routines takes time and effort. These best workout routines is a great place to start if a person is interested in flat abs. The P90X workout routines is also another workout that will help develop flat abs.

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