Muscle Cramps – The Best Way to Avoid Them

One of the worst obstacles to working out is the hard cramp that seizes up your calf when you are walking or that spasm you feel in your upper arm when you are working on bicep curls. Your muscles cramp when they are worked past their energy levels. Obviously, muscles need energy to function at their peak performance. So how do you provide your muscles with enough energy? For many athletes, that answer is found in sports drinks like Gatorade. These drinks provide plenty of carbohydrates, but you also want to make sure they provide plenty of protein as well. … Continue reading

Tip of the Day- Stretch before bed

No gym and no special equipment, no previous experience required. Learn a lesson from your cat, and stretch! Stretching is often over looked for its health benefits. It can give you increased flexibility and better range of motion, improved circulation, better posture, stress relief, enhanced coordination, and lowers your risk of injury during exercise and daily activities. The American Association for Clinical Chemistry even suggests that stretching can lower your blood pressure and your cholesterol, and increase your body’s ability to use insulin to improve the metabolism of blood sugar and carbohydrates. Stretching keeps our muscles flexible and increases blood … Continue reading

Strength Training – Understanding More About It

When it comes to getting in shape, we have discussed that you need to balance a trio of activities including flexibility, aerobic and strength training in order to develop your body to its fullest potential and to build good health across the board. Each part of the trio is an important component to your overall health. Aerobic exercise teaches your body to and your muscles to utilize oxygen with greater efficiency. Strength training builds the muscle mass in your body and helps you to burn calories more efficiently. Flexibility training teaches your body to be suppler and gives you greater … Continue reading

Pointing at our Posture

We’ve talked about posture here before. We’ve talked about listening to our mothers and our grandmothers who told us to sit up straight were doing more than nagging us, they were trying to drill into us a healthy form of behavior that pays off throughout our lifetime. How, do you ask? Well, let me share this little nugget of information with you: Our good posture is the result of natural skeletal balance that is maintained by muscles strong enough to hold us upright. It is impossible for a person to have good posture and not be relatively fit. Good posture … Continue reading

Ease Your Arthritis With Exercise

When it comes to easing arthritis, the relief is what most people want. There are a lot of studies out there targeting how to help your arthritis and target it for relief through exercise. We’ve talked about arthritis and exercise here in the fitness blog before and today we’re going to talk about the different types of exercises and methods for easing your arthritis. Six tips you need to keep in mind for arthritis exercise, include: Applying heat or ice before a workout in order to relax your joints Dress in comfortable clothing Warm up with gentle exercise Wear shock-absorbing … Continue reading