Oct 11

How to train your brain to truly enjoy exercise, according to science

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Yes, you can mold your mind to extract more pleasure from activity.   Truth: They woke up like this. Some people really are more inclined to find joy in exercise. But! You can rewire your brain to join that ‘love it’ group, research shows. When experts measured the electrical connectivity in the brains of people who are recreationally active, they found that those who perceive themselves as being highly tolerant of physical effort had greater levels of ‘remembered pleasure’ afterward, according to the new study by Florida International University. Meanwhile, those who said they were not as tolerant had a certain amount of ‘anticipatory dread,’ or negative feelings, before the work even started. The good news is that you can teach yourself to be more accepting, physically and mentally, of movement—which will help you feel excited about exercise in general and crave it more often. By trying some (or all!) of these tactics, you’ll likely notice benefits immediately, says study lead Marcelo Bigliassi, PhD. To extend the effect, keep efforts ongoing, so subtle changes compound over time. Onward!   1. Add appeal to the flavour of exercise you already like. Let’s say you don’t mind weight lifting but definitely don’t […]
Oct 08

6 Calming Self-Care Activities for People With Anxiety Disorders

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Exercising regularly, filling your plate with nutritious foods, and other strategies can not only ease your symptoms, but they can help your treatment work better, too. Alongside treatments like talk therapy and medication, lifestyle management strategies — including self-care — can help people with anxiety disorders feel better. Self-care is any activity that helps you keep up your mental and physical well-being. In general, a solid self-care routine can help you curb stress, lower your risk of illness, and boost your energy. For anxiety disorders in particular, self-care can actually help make your treatment more effective. “Self-care is crucial for individuals with anxiety disorders as it serves as a fundamental tool to manage and alleviate symptoms,” says Joel Frank, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles. Here are six expert-backed self-care activities that can help keep your anxiety symptoms at bay.   1. Exercise Regularly It’s well-known that exercise can do a lot of good for both physical and mental health — and anxiety is no exception. “Exercise and physical activity can be powerful tools for treating anxiety,” says Dr. Frank. Research backs this up. One study showed that regular exercise may help improve symptoms among people […]
Oct 05

What You Need to Know About Rest Days for Your Workout Plan

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You might have heard that you need to go hard every day for success. You heard wrong.   TAKING A NO days off mentality to accomplish your fitness goals might have short term benefits, but likely wind up putting yourself at risk of injury in the long run. That type of mindset is an antiquated concept of old-school gym culture as useful these days as a rusty barbell. You can pick it up and try to give it a few reps, but you’ll be better off with a newer, more modern approach. Rest days are not for the weak. That can be hard to swallow if you love training, and if you have big-time goals you’re working hard to achieve. If that’s you, you’re wondering exactly how many rest days do you really need to optimize your recovery? What if you’re training for a race or pushing for a PR? Taking time off when you have a goal staring back at you can be difficult—so how long should you break before you get back into your workout plan? How many rest days are needed in a week of training? Here, Kurt Ellis, C.S.C.S., owner and coach at Beyond Numbers Performance, […]
Oct 01

The Secret Tricks for Getting a Lean Body After 60, Say Experts

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Just because it’s harder doesn’t mean it’s impossible.   There’s no getting around it—as you get older, it becomes progressively harder to run the six miles you used to do each morning. Your strength, balance, and mobility naturally decrease with age, and it’s harder for many people to stay strong and manage your weight. “[As you age] there’s a steady increase in fat mass and changes in body composition, as well as an increase in insulin resistance,” says Leada Malek, PT, DPT, CSCS. “There are also changes in bone density, joint stiffness, and sometimes posture, and all these factors can contribute to metabolism and muscle mass changes after 60,” she adds. What’s more, as you age you often see a reduction in metabolic rate due to the loss of muscle mass. “Your body makeup also starts to shift where what was once muscle turns to fat since you typically stop using your muscles and don’t need to maintain them anymore,” says Caley Crawford, NASM-CPT, trainer and director of education for Row House. These factors make it harder to lose unwanted weight and maintain a lean body after 60, she says. Because of these changes, people often feel weaker and less […]
Sep 28

Your brain needs more rest than you’re giving it. These 9 tips can help.

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Brain health is not just about sleep. Here’s how to focus on adding more restful moments into your day   When you think about getting rest, which of these situations comes to mind?   A. Enjoying a good night’s sleep B. Taking a midday nap C. Reclining on the sofa to watch mindless television   While these restful moments all have their place in daily life, it’s a common misconception to view rest as an entirely passive experience. True rest, say experts, is not just about being sedentary or in the prone position — it’s also about giving your brain the restorative breaks it needs to function at an optimal level. While adequate sleep is essential to brain health, many forms of rest involve activity, not slumber. “The most restorative kinds of rest — the things that recharge our mental and physical batteries most effectively — are the things that are active rather than passive,” said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of the book “Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less.” “Going for a long walk or hike or working out can give us more rather than less energy and leave us feeling mentally more rejuvenated.”   This […]
Sep 24

How Long It Should Take to Walk a Mile – and How That Can Help to Improve Your Fitness

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Whether you’re looking to move more or you want to upgrade your daily stroll, these tips will help you pick up the pace   If you live somewhere with pavements, you probably do your fair share of walking to get around. Even if you live in a more car-centric space, you likely have access to parks and other green space to take a stroll. Whether you think of walking as exercise or as a means to get from A to B, there are so many reasons to give your ambulatory habits some more focused attention. If you’re wondering how your current walking practice stacks up to how much – or how fast – others are moving, consider testing how long it takes to walk a mile. That’s just one benchmark that walking coach Michele Stanten, founder of MyWalkingCoach.com and author of The Walking Solution, says could help to incentivise you to reach for your sneakers more often. Once you know how fast you’re walking and about how long it takes to walk a mile, you can set walking goals that work for your lifestyle. Here’s what to keep in mind.   The Benefits of Walking You’ve likely heard many times […]
Sep 21

How to train your mind to not skip the gym

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A change in approach and some expert tips can help in overcoming the omnipresent cloud of laziness and make you a regular at the gym.   “Tomorrow, I will definitely go to the gym.” That’s how it starts – with tomorrow. Then it keeps getting pushed – to the next Monday, next month and, next year, before you even know it. Sounds like the story of your life? The 6 am alarm you set to wake up early and go to the gym faces the sinful snooze hits and an eventual ‘dismiss’ before you doze off again. Or, you prepare that gym bag with the utmost zeal. Put in it the shoes, clothes, towel and other gym essentials. You carry it to your office, to ensure you take a detour to the gym (or head to the one in your office) before returning home. ‘Nothing can stop me now,’ you think to yourself. Cut to 7 pm, you are lured into going straight home. You take that bag, unpacked and intact, along with some excuses on your mind, home with you. The world of treadmills, dumbbells and weight-lifting machines can wait for another day. It goes on and on, no […]
Sep 17

Pro tips for muscle building to help you ace the strength game

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With so much information out there, it can be confusing to know what works best for building muscles. Here are some expert-approved tips you can try.   Anyone who is interested in fitness must have come across social media apps showing guys with huge biceps lifting massive weights. There are so many fitness experts who share ways to build muscles by lifting heavy weights and what not. While you may come across several ways that will help you build muscles, there are certain things that might not work for you. Fitness coach and speaker Miten Kakaiya recently shared an informative video to help you understand basics about muscle building. In the caption, the fitness coach shares that muscle building is not the “game of the body but the mind. A great mind-muscle connection will 100 percent increase your gains and will prove more effective than mindlessly practising set after set for hours without achieving any results.” He also shared that you need to focus on the following things if you want to gain muscle strength:   1. Focus on your form It goes without saying that lifting weights with proper form is always better than having a proper form. He […]
Sep 14

How lifting weights could improve your body and your mind

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“Pumping iron” may conjure up images of muscly gym-goers sweating though a workout accompanied by over-the-top music, but developing a weight-lifting routine can be done easily at home. And the benefits can be huge. The pros of weight training (also known in various forms as resistance training and strength training) go beyond simply toning the body and stronger muscles and bones – it helps maintain a healthy heart and immune system and can even improve brainpower and help you live longer. Michael Mosley shows how dumbbells are actually a very smart move for both your physical and mental capacities.   Lifting weights lowers blood sugar Maintaining muscle mass is not just about how good it looks on the outside, it’s working for you inside too. As well as benefiting your waistline, weight training improves your metabolism and increases your insulin sensitivity, meaning it’s easier to lower blood sugar levels after a meal.   Your immune system is boosted by resistance training A study comparing women who did no exercise with those who regularly did resistance training showed that the latter group had cells that were more active in helping the body fight infection.   Muscle mass is a key indicator […]
Sep 11

10 benefits of running for both your body and your mind

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Occasions like Global Running Day and the London Marathon put a brilliant spotlight on the activity of running – but running isn’t just about single days. Instead, running is a sport, a hobby and a mental and physical release that everyone can enjoy and improve at. In other words, running can become a welcome, important and extremely beneficial part of your life. If you’ve never run a step, here are 10 benefits of running that will inspire you to lace up those running shoes and get going today…   1. It strengthens your body When you run, your whole physiology reaps the rewards of your movement. Here are just some parts of the body that feel the positive effects of those accumulated running steps. The heart Among other things, regular running helps to improve your respiratory function, lower your cholesterol, reduce your risk of diabetes and improve your heart health. In fact, according to leading cardiologist Dr Dan Augustine, ‘if you could put exercise into a pill, it would be better than most drugs that a doctor could give you’. That, in itself, is one mighty selling point for running. The heart is like an engine. As you run, or […]
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