5 Ways to Age-Proof Your Body While You Still Can

Early humans only lived to 30, and our bodies haven't entirely caught up to our long lives.


 April M. Short

Despite the fact that the average life expectancy for American men is 77 years, your body begins to lose its fortitude earlier than you might have thought. “You start to lose strength in your twenties,” as Jordan Metzl, a sports doctor in Manhattan, told GQ magazine.

Our early human ancestors only lived until roughly 30, and our bodies haven’t completely evolved to match our modern-day longevity, as GQ explained in a recent article“How to Old-Proof Your Body (While You're Still Young).” So, you pretty much peak in your 30s, and it’s all downhill from there.

But don’t freak out because if you start now, there are simple (though sometimes strenuous) steps you can take to improve your betting odds against the Grim Reaper. Here are 5 of the best tips GQ has for age-proofing your body. (Their tips were man-centric, but the following can apply to either sex.):

1. That is according to the authors of a study by the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, in France. The study found that memory might actually begin to flicker as early as 45, and suggested that heart health equals head health.Cardio prevents memory slippage.

2. Roll out your soon-to-be-creaky joints.

“Every day, grab a foam roller—those long logs in a gym that look like American Gladiators weapons—and roll out every major body part for a minute each.”

3. Stretching throughout the day keeps your hunchback away.

“Think about your daily movements, whether they're typing or wiping your ass: It's all about bending forward. … So every few hours at work, toss your hands behind your head and stretch for few minutes; you'll open your chest and bend yourself back upright.”

4. Low impact exercise, calcium and vitamin D all help keep you standing tall, literally.

“[Men] lose about half an inch per decade, starting in your forties,” GQ explains. NYU spine doctor Jeffrey Goldstein said this is because of spinal-disk degeneration and bone weakening. “It'll happen even faster for runners, heavy laborers, and others who stress their spines,” GQ wrote.

5. You won’t live to 90 if you’re overweight.

Lew Hollander, the world's oldest Ironman competitor at 84, told GQ: "There are no fat old people. Show me one. Show me a 90-year-old fat person. They don't exist! Who's 90 years old? The little old man—well, he's not fat, and that's how he got old.”

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/5-ways-age-proof-your-body-while-you-still-can

5 ab moves for a tight stomach

After having 3 kids I was so ready to have my abs back.  First I realized that I will need to shred the fat off by eating clean, second I need to rebuild my abs to make them strong again by figuring out what ab exercises are the best to do.  Who has ever tried to do a sit up a week or two after having a baby? I know I have and It was impossible.  It can become devastating!  Today I want to share with you 5 ab moves that I do weekly. I love these moves because they have made my abs really strong and they are easy to do with little strain to the neck but yet they make your abs scream. These 5 ab moves for a tight stomach will help bring those before baby abs back.

I liked to do each workout 3 sets of 15.  There are a few ab workouts that you will work on each side so each side you will do 15. For example Right side one, Left side one. Right side two, Left side two all the way until you hit 15, repeated 3 times.

V UPS

Move 1. Lay down flat on your back with arms extended over your head. Then you want to slowly move your hands and your feet into a V position, meeting together at the top. Then going back down to the starting position.

move 1

move 1

Mason Twists

Move 2.  You will need a light weight with this move. Start by sitting on your bottom with legs bent in the air and hands holding weight in front of your stomach. Then you’re going to want to drop the weight to your right side almost touching the floor , back to middle, then to your left side almost touching the floor. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 2

move 2

move 2

 Plank Twists

Move 3. Start in a plank position on elbows, make sure you keep your whole body inline. Then you’re going to drop your hips to the right side touching the floor, back to center and then to the left side touching the floor. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 3

move 3

move 3

Scissors

Move 4.  Start with laying on your back, placing your hands by your bottom (you can place them under your bottom too), legs about a foot off the ground. Then your going to open your legs and cross your left foot on top like scissors. Open your legs and cross the right leg on top like scissors. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 4

move 4

move 4

One Leg V Up

Move 5. Start by laying on your back with your right arm extended over your head and left arm by your side. Then you want to slowly move your hand together with your right foot into a V position, meeting together at the top. Do right side first then left side. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

                                                                                        move 5

move 5

Abs are something we all want and think we can’t have after we have kids but I want to help you know that you can have abs again. Of course these work for everyone, not just the people that have had kids! It will be through your daily diet and working your abs out 3-4 times a week that gets you there!

http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/5-ab-moves-tight-stomach.html

The Only 5 Exercises You'll Ever Need

By Michael Beck

It sounds like a bad infomercial: Get ripped in less time! We're conditioned to believe that jaw-dropping, body-transforming results are achieved only by putting in the hours. But if you've been adhering to the muscle-isolating back-and-bi, chest-and-tri gospel, the truth is, you're doing it wrong.

"Your brain doesn't think in single 'muscles,' it thinks in terms of movement patterns," says Pat Davidson, Ph.D., director of training methodology at Peak Performance, a private fitness studio in New York City. "Human evolution led to five basic movements, which encompass nearly all of our everyday motions." Meaning your workout needs just five exercises, one from each of these categories: push (pressing away from you), pull (tugging toward you), hip-hinge (bending from the middle), squat (flexing at the knee), and plank (stabilizing your core).

It's the approach Davidson takes when drawing up the regimens of Peak's celebrity clients, including Gerard Butler, 50 Cent, and Jimmy Fallon. The time-crunched love it because it's an efficient and effective workout -- more taxing on the muscles, leading to increased strength and a faster metabolism. Plus, you're not lost when your trainer isn't around. "If you know the basics, it's incredibly simple to build your own workout," Davidson says.

Still, there can be too much of a good thing. "It's stressful to the entire body," says Jason Hartman, trainer to many U.S. Olympic bobsled and skeleton athletes and the U.S. Army Special Forces. "That means that if you overdo them, you'll just beat yourself up. Do this style of workout no more than three or four times a week." Mix and match the moves and feel okay about taking the less-time-consuming way out.

How It Works

Pick one move from each of these categories. Then do two sets of 12 reps. Change up the moves but repeat the plan three or four times a week. For cardio extra credit, see the add-ons below.

PUSH

The Ultimate: Bench Press
Lie face-up on a bench, holding a heavy barbell at your sternum, hands shoulder-width apart, elbows bent into sides. Extend arms, pushing bar directly above chest. Pause, then lower barbell to start.

The Alternates: Push-up, dumbbell shoulder press, single-arm kettlebell press, push press

PULL

The Ultimate: Pull-up
Hang from a bar with palms facing away from you, arms straight, knees bent so feet don't touch floor. Bend elbows, pulling chest toward bar. Slowly lower yourself to start.

The Alternates: Dumbbell row, TRX row, chin-up, cable row, lat pull-down

HIP-HINGE

The Ultimate: Deadlift
Set a heavy barbell on the floor in front of you. Push hips back as you bend forward, grabbing the bar with hands more than shoulder-width apart, palms facing body. Keep back straight as you stand up, lifting the bar and thrusting hips forward. Slowly lower bar to start.

The Alternates: Kettlebell swing, Romanian deadlift, trap-bar deadlift

SQUAT

The Ultimate: Split Squat
Stand on your right leg, left foot resting on a bench or box behind you, and hold a heavy dumbbell in each hand. Bend right knee, lowering body until left knee hovers just above the ground. Straighten right leg, returning to start. Complete all the reps on one side before switching legs.

The Alternates: Barbell squat, lunge, goblet squat, reverse lunge

PLANK

The Ultimate: Farmer's Walk
Stand up straight holding a heavy dumbbell in each hand, palms facing body. Maintain your posture as you walk 20 meters. Turn, repeat, returning to start.

The Alternates: Plank, bird dog, side plank, suitcase carry

Fat-Burning Finishers

To check off cardio, too (and send your metabolism into even higher gear), add one of these five-minute bursts to your five-move session, suggests Davidson. "Make it the worst five minutes of your life," he says. The results: less fat, more definition.

Do More Reps

Load a barbell with a weight that's about 70 percent of what you can lift one time, then choose one of the five movements and perform as many reps as you can -- without breaking form.

Go Farther

On a rowing machine, row as many meters as possible in five minutes. With each workout, attempt to increase that distance by one percent.

Sprint up a Hill

Set a treadmill to a slight incline, about 3 percent. Run as fast as you can for 30 seconds, aiming for 10 miles per hour. Jog for 30 seconds at 5 mph. Repeat for 5 minutes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/details/the-only-5-exercises-youl_b_6425112.html?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_363307

Everyday activities as good as going to gym

Short stretches of physical activity - such as taking the stairs or raking leaves - throughout the day can be just as beneficial as a trip to the gym, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at more than 6 000 American adults and found that this "active lifestyle approach" appeared to be as effective as structured exercise in providing health benefits such as preventing high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the group of risk factors known as metabolic syndrome that increases the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

"Our results suggest that engaging in an active lifestyle approach, compared to a structured exercise approach, may be just as beneficial in improving various health outcomes," study author Paul Loprinzi said. "We encourage people to seek out opportunities to be active when the choice is available.

Opt to walk, move while on the phone

For example, rather than sitting while talking on the phone, use this opportunity to get in some activity by pacing around while talking."

Loprinzi was a doctoral student at Oregon State University when he conducted the study. He is now an assistant professor of exercise science at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky.

The researchers also found that 43% of adults who did short bouts of exercise met the federal physical activity guidelines of 30 minutes a day, compared with less than 10% of those who did longer exercise sessions.

"You hear that less than 10% of Americans exercise and it gives the perception that people are lazy," study co-author Brad Cardinal, a professor of exercise and sports science at Oregon State, said in the news release. "Our research shows that more than 40% of adults achieved the exercise guidelines, by making movement a way of life."

The study was published in the January/February issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

People are too busy to exercise

Many people say they don't get enough exercise due to lack of time. These findings are promising in that they show that simply incorporating movement into everyday activities can provide health benefits, Cardinal said.

"This is a more natural way to exercise - just to walk more and move around a bit more," he noted. "We are designed by nature as beings who are supposed to move. People get it in their minds: 'If I don't get that 30 minutes, I might as well not exercise at all.' Our results really challenge that perception and give people meaningful, realistic options for meeting the physical activity guidelines."

http://www.health24.com/Fitness/News/Everyday-activities-as-good-as-going-to-gym-20130211

Does Exercise Really Make Us Smarter?

Exercise seems to be good for the human brain, with many recent studies suggesting that regular exercise improves memory and thinking skills. But an interesting new study asks whether the apparent cognitive benefits from exercise are real or just a placebo effect — that is, if we think we will be “smarter” after exercise, do our brains respond accordingly? The answer has significant implications for any of us hoping to use exercise to keep our minds sharp throughout our lives.

In experimental science, the best, most reliable studies randomly divide participants into two groups, one of which receives the drug or other treatment being studied and the other of which is given a placebo, similar in appearance to the drug, but not containing the active ingredient.

Placebos are important, because they help scientists to control for people’s expectations. If people believe that a drug, for example, will lead to certain outcomes, their bodies may produce those results, even if the volunteers are taking a look-alike dummy pill. That’s the placebo effect, and its occurrence suggests that the drug or procedure under consideration isn’t as effective as it might seem to be; some of the work is being done by people’s expectations, not by the medicine.

Recently, some scientists have begun to question whether the apparently beneficial effects of exercise on thinking might be a placebo effect. While many studies suggest that exercise may have cognitive benefits, those experiments all have had a notable scientific limitation: They have not used placebos.

This issue is not some abstruse scientific debate. If the cognitive benefits from exercise are a result of a placebo effect rather than of actual changes in the brain because of the exercise, then those benefits could be ephemeral and unable in the long term to help us remember how to spell ephemeral.

Studying this issue, however, is difficult. There is no placebo for exercise and no way to blind people about whether they are exercising. They know if they are walking or cycling or not.

So researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign came up with a clever workaround. They decided to focus on expectations, on what people anticipate that exercise will do for thinking. If people’s expectations jibe closely with the actual benefits, then at least some of those improvements are probably a result of the placebo effect and not of exercise.

The scientists had seen this situation at work during an earlier study of video games and cognition. Past research had suggested that playing action-oriented video games improves players’ subsequent thinking skills. But when scientists in the new study asked video-game players to estimate by how much the games would improve their thinking, the players’ estimates almost exactly matched the gains seen on cognitive tests after playing. In other words, the cognitive benefits of playing video games appear to be largely a result of a placebo effect.

For the new study, which was published last month in PLOS One, the researchers repeated this experiment but focused on exercise. Recruiting 171 people through an online survey system, they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning program performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking, including memory and mental multitasking.

The other volunteers were asked the same questions, but about a regular walking program.

In actual experiments, stretching and toning regimens generally have little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills. Walking, on the other hand, seems to substantially improve thinking ability.

But the survey respondents believed the opposite, estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking. The volunteers’ estimates of the likely cognitive improvements from gentle toning averaged about a three on a scale from one to six. The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.

These data, while they do not involve any actual exercise, are good news for people who do exercise. “The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect,” said Cary Stothart, a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University, who led the study.

If expectations had been driving the improvements in cognition seen in studies after exercise, Mr. Stothart said, then people should have expected walking to be more beneficial for thinking than stretching. They didn’t, implying that the changes in the brain and thinking after exercise are physiologically genuine.

Of course, this study was small and involved a self-selected group of people who happen to like completing online surveys. Some said they exercised, others said they did not. None claimed to be familiar with the science related to exercise and the brain, but it is impossible to know if people were being forthright.

Still, the findings are strong enough to suggest that exercise really does change the brain and may, in the process, improve thinking, Mr. Stothart said. That conclusion should encourage scientists to look even more closely into how, at a molecular level, exercise remodels the human brain, he said. It also should spur the rest of us to move, since the benefits are, it seems, not imaginary, even if they are in our head.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/does-exercise-really-make-us-smarter/

Exercise Is ADHD Medication

Physical movement improves mental focus, memory, and cognitive flexibility; new research shows just how critical it is to academic performance.
JAMES HAMBLIN
Electrophysiological plots representing brain processing
capacity and mental workload (P3 amplitude) during
cognitive tasks that require executive control in children
in the experiment and control groups. Red represents
the greatest amplitude, and blue the lowest.
(Hillman et al, Pediatrics/The Atlantic)

Mental exercises to build (or rebuild) attention span have shown promise recently as adjuncts or alternatives to amphetamines in addressing symptoms common to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Building cognitive control, to be better able to focus on just one thing, or single-task, might involve regular practice with a specialized video game that reinforces "top-down" cognitive modulation, as was the case in a popular paper in Nature last year. Cool but still notional. More insipid but also more clearly critical to addressing what's being called the ADHD epidemic is plain old physical activity.

This morning the medical journal Pediatrics published research that found kids who took part in a regular physical activity program showed important enhancement of cognitive performance and brain function. The findings, according to University of Illinois professor Charles Hillman and colleagues, "demonstrate a causal effect of a physical program on executive control, and provide support for physical activity for improving childhood cognition and brain health." If it seems odd that this is something that still needs support, that's because it is odd, yes. Physical activity is clearly a high, high-yield investment for all kids, but especially those attentive or hyperactive. This brand of research is still published and written about as though it were a novel finding, in part because exercise programs for kids remain underfunded and underprioritized in many school curricula, even though exercise is clearly integral to maximizing the utility of time spent in class.

The improvements in this case came in executive control, which consists of inhibition (resisting distraction, maintaining focus), working memory, and cognitive flexibility (switching between tasks). The images above show the brain activity in the group of kids who did the program as opposed to the group that didn't. It's the kind of difference that's so dramatic it's a little unsettling. The study only lasted nine months, but when you're only seven years old, nine months is a long time to be sitting in class with a blue head.

It may potentially be advisable to consider possibly implementing more exercise opportunities for kids.
Earlier this month, another study found that a 12-week exercise program improved math and reading test scores in all kids, but especially in those with signs of ADHD. (Executive functioning is impaired in ADHD, and tied to performance in math and reading.) Lead researcher Alan Smith, chair of the department of kinesiology at Michigan State, went out on no limb at all in a press statement at the time, saying, "Early studies suggest that physical activity can have a positive effect on children who suffer from ADHD."

Last year a very similar study in the Journal of Attention Disorders found that just 26 minutes of daily physical activity for eight weeks significantly allayed ADHD symptoms in grade-school kids. The modest conclusion of the study was that "physical activity shows promise for addressing ADHD symptoms in young children." The researchers went on to write that this finding should be "carefully explored with further studies."
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/exercise-seems-to-be-beneficial-to-children/380844/

15 min Extreme Cross Fitness Home Workout

 15 min Cross Fitness Home Workout

Yoga For Beginners Simple Breathing Exercise

Ananda Yoga
To get more benefits from asanas and other yoga exercises your nasal passage should be clean so that you can easily concentrate on your breathing. http://youtu.be/qdJU43MuqjM

Jim Mcdonald - Laser Dental Treatment Jokes