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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Hip Toning Exercise

Hip exercises definitely help reduce weight to certain limit but contrary to the myth and the tall claims made by info-commercials, spot reduction of fat is not possible. Fat reduction has been found to be uniform all over the body although accumulation has been found in the mid body first. While exercises such as hip strengthening exercises, hip slimming exercises are found useful in rehabilitation programs they are also applicable in weight management. Hip reducing exercises are important for those who (predominantly in women) have wider pelvis that also accommodates more fat.
Hip Reducing Exercises
There is a wide range of hip slimming exercises varying according to their utilities (benefits) and applicability. We take a look at some of those here.
1. Side Lunge Slide
This hip toning exercise works on the gluteus mediums muscle. You can’t do this exercise on a carpet. Smooth floor is better. Stand with feet stretched apart to hip width with one foot on a paper plate. Slide your foot, which is on the paper plate, away sidewise while keeping torso and abs upright. You will need to bend the other knee. Hold it there for a while and get the foot back sliding to original position. Repeat the same for the next foot and then the cycle for 8-10 times. You can rest your hands on your torso.
2. Front one legged squat
Stand on a step to begin with. Lift your left leg out forward and slowly begin to squat till the toe of the left foot touches the floor. Touch the floor lightly while keeping the right knee in line with your toes. Now stand up slowly and repeat it 8-10 times. Change legs and repeat for 4-5 sets again.
3. Chair squat
Stand in front of a chair with your feet spread to hip width, hold torso straight and abs tight. Slowly bend your knees without spreading until you are almost sitting on the chair. Hold knees behind toes and for balance you can stretch arms forward. Hold there for about 2-3 seconds and then stand up slowly. Repeat for 14-15 times and of 2-3 sets.
4. Bullfrog
Bull frog is another of the hip strengthening exercises that also works on thighs. This is not recommended for those of you with joint pains and arthritis. Stand up with feet spread to hip width. Then squat till hips are in the lowest position. Hold there for not more than a second and then in one swift move leap up like a frog does. Repeat this 8-10 times but not on a hard floor to avoid injury. This exercise is also called as squat thrust.

While above explained hip workouts are more advisable for those wanting to reduce fat, there are exercises specially formulated for sprinters and athletes for strengthening their hips

Burning Calories

There are many good reasons for exercising regularly, and burning calories is just one of them. The calories burned during exercise depend on the type of exercise, your body weight, the intensity of the exercise, your metabolism and the length of the exercise. Many exercises are particularly good at burning calories, including aerobics and bicycling. This article will show you how different exercises work at burning off calories.

Flexibility and muscle fitness is also important when it comes to exercising, but people who are trying to lose weight will benefit from spending more time in calorie-burning exercises.

Exercise burns calories by using up the energy that is provided by food. Calories become energy in our body. It is either used up (through exercise) or it is stored. When it is stored, it may become body fat. Participating in regular exercises burns the calories, instead of storing them.
Calorie-Burning Exercises:
Every type of exercises burns some amount of calories. Even just breathing uses a certain amount of calories. Performing daily tasks such as walking to work, getting breakfast, doing housework etc, burn calories. However, some types of exercises use up more energy and therefore burn calories at a higher rate.
Strengthening Training:
Many people who are exercising solely to lose weight may not spend much (or any) time on strength training exercises under the belief that only cardiovascular exercises will help them burn calories and lose weight. Although cardiovascular exercises will burn more calories per workout, strength training workouts can play a very important role in burning calories. Strength training improves muscle mass, which helps the body burn calories more efficiently. Participating in strength training will help the body burn more calories during other types of exercises.
Cardiovascular Exercises:
Cardiovascular exercises are very good at burning calories as they use up a lot of energy. The more intense the cardiovascular exercise, the more calories will be burned. The amount of calories burned will depend on the type of exercise, the length of time, the intensity and your metabolism. Spending some time in strength training will help improve your metabolism so that you burn more calories when participating in cardiovascular exercises.

Top Jogging Tips

Get jogging tips from friends or a coach before getting started. Here are some simple tips on jogging.

1. Consulting your physician is important if you are over weight before getting started with jogging.

2. Give up smoking which, in any case, is detrimental to cardiovascular fitness. Smokers get exhausted fast could lead to palpitations.

3. Get a good pair of jogging shoes.

4. Avoid jogging on hilly terrain to prevent injury. Running downhill, you can tumble down injuring yourself.

5. Take longer and steady strides. Land your steps straight without splaying to prevent ankle injury.

6. Avoid bouncing too much and keep yourself erect. Don’t hunch over.

7. Choose a pristine place to jog.

8. Begin slowly and increase speed as you get used to jogging. As a thumb rule, you can step up speed by 10-12 meters a week.

9. Carry a walkman along. Music helps relax the mind.

Jogging

Jogging, the term is not aptly defined unlike other activities or exercises. However, one can say jogging is running at brisk, trotting pace as a form of exercise for burning calories and cardiopulmonary well being. We will the discuss benefits of jogging that you can avail and jogging tips with a section on “how to start jogging” and including jogging gear.
What Is Jogging? Does It Help In Burning Calories?
Jogging is running as a form of exercise that invigorates growth, burning of calories and cardiovascular fitness by high impact on places such as heels and knee joints. Jogging helps burn calories. As per American Council on Exercise, ACE, estimated that a person of 160 pounds weight can burn away 12-13 calories by jogging at about six miles an hour speed. However the rate of calories burning varies with each individual’s weight. There are some interesting statistics that tell us jogging at 5 miles per hr into 15 mph wind increases burning of calorie by 15% as opposed to 5% when you are jogging in opposite direction.
A Brief on Jogging Gears
The most important of all is a pair of jogging shoes. The modern biomechanical wonders, jogging shoes, absorb impact shocks reducing risk of injury. The shoes must have good cushioning soles with all round protection, especially to ankles. You must avoid wearing thin shoes and socks to avoid injuries and blisters. Initially, when you begin, you may not need jogging pants but can think of buying after weeks of practice. When it is time to buy jogging pants, jogging shoes and jogging equipments, you can consult your mates. Always buy reputed brands. Although high priced, they payback over time.
Benefits of Jogging
Jogging burns more calories than walking as you consume more oxygen per mile you run than walking in addition to the impact factor. Circulation increases briefly as does the heart beat. Once you get seasoned enough, you begin to see benefits of jogging. You won’t find sudden thumping of your heart which gets increased and vital oxygen. Jogging tones muscles too. Perhaps it is the best exercise for overweight people. Because of the impact they can burn more calories from hips, thighs and abdominal area. Rotating the torso as you run gives a smoother stride in addition to strengthening waist muscle.

Tips To Improve Stamina

I was always interested in finding ways to increase my stamina so that I can do more physical feats and work harder without getting tired. In my quest, I have found a few exercises which can be really very helpful in this regard.

1. Skipping: Start small. Skip for some time daily - as long as you feel comfortable. Each week try to increase the duration a little.This can have a good effect on increasing your stamina.

2. Running on the Spot: Run on the spot for a set period of time, like 2 minutes to start with. Later as days pass by you can increase it to maybe 5 minutes etc.

3. Swimming: Everybody must be aware of the good effects of swimming. It is a very good exercise. If you make a habit to swim atleast 30 minutes everyday it can do wonders for your stamina.

4. Cycling: This is another very good exercise for increasing stamina vastly. All the above mentioned exercises not only improve our stamina, they come with a wide range of other health benefits too.

5. When working out, keep in mind two things: overload and progression. Overload is necessary to improve stamina, but don't overdo it. If you are getting irritable or depressed, they can be the first signs of fatigue. Progression means to keep on improving.

I hope that I include many of the above exercises in my daily schedule for a long time to come.What about you?

In addition to improving stamina, we also need to have high energy throughout the day to do our work.


hair care tips

  • Brush your hair regularly before going to bed each night.
  • Wash your hair with a mild shampoo. Use very little but enough to cover hair completely with lather. Use a conditioner to keep hair manageable.
  • Avoid brushing wet hair. This will cause the hair to stretch and finally break. Finger-dry, or use a wide-toothed comb instead of a brush to gently remove the knots.
  • Restrict blow-drying your hair. The process of blow-drying is harsh on hair as it robs it of moisture.
  • Avoid dyes. Use mehandi (henna) instead as a conditioner and colouring agent.
  • Take a calcium supplement or drink two glasses of milk a day.
  • Always hold hair dryer away from your hair. Direct air from the hair dryer down hair shaft and not directly into the roots and keep it moving.
  • After a perm, never brush your hair. Instead comb hair gently.
  • Trim your hair once in 7 weeks to avoid split ends.
  • Avoid pulling back your hair tightly.
  • Never use a rubber band on your hair as it can pull and damage hair considerably.
  • Never go out in the sun without having your head covered.
  • Stimulate circulation by massaging your head with oil to which some vitamin E has been added. This will make hair soft and silky.
  • Never wash your hair with very hot or very cold water.
  • Learn to relax. Loss of hair can happen because of stress. Eat foods that are rich in vitamin B, C and E.
  • Add iron and minerals in the natural form in your diet.

The Latest Trends In Mens Hairstyles

Today's man hair style can be either long and textured or super short and tight and still be considered trendy and at the height of fashion. Some men's hair styles require gel, mousse or pomade while others don't even need to be combed. The truth is that now more than ever there are numerous ways to achieve a stylish and trendy man hair cut. That means that there are a lot of different styles for men who are looking for the perfect man hair style to choose from.

While the man's hair style is less rigid than it was in the 80s and requires a lot less goo to accomplish, the modern man hair cut is still best served by a little styling. No, you do not need to spend hours in front of the mirror coaxing every strand into place, but a little gel never hurt any man's hair style that I know of.

Here are just a few of the latest trends in men's hair styles and how to style them: " Super short man's hair style. High and Tight, Fade, Spike, Clipper Cut and Crew Cut are just a few of the names given to the short man's hair cut. By far the most popular man's hair style is the High and Tight or Fade. Characterized by a closely cropped clipper cut around the sides and back of the head with just enough hair on top of the head to comb, this man's hair style with its many variations accounts for about 75 percent of all popular styles today. With just a little bit of gel to spike up the top, mess it up a little or finger into place, this man's hair style will only take you seconds to achieve. While you may have to get it cut more often, about every three weeks or so, the ease of styling this man hair cut is what makes it a favorite among busy men today.

" Medium length, textured men's hair style. Today's styles for men have a lot of texture and the same is true for medium-length styles (about 3 to 4 inches). These styles resemble the classic man hair cut of the past, but step it up a notch by using extreme texture and color to bring it all together. Most styles use a great deal of razoring and texturizing with notching scissors. To style this man's hair style pomade usually works best. Work product through dry hair and finger into place.

" Long man's hair style. While most men do not wear their hair down their back anymore, the long man's hair style has made a somewhat shorter comeback. Perhaps the most recognizable example that I can give of this men's hair style is Ashton Kutcher. Long, textured and disheveled, this man hair cut is gaining widespread popularity. Again, this man's hair cut requires a lot of texture and works best with pomade.

As you can see from these few examples, the man's hair style is far from boring. Gone are the days of cookie-cutter barber shop man hair cut. Here to stay is the trendy and styled cuts of today.

General Skin Care and Maintenance:

As early as sweet sixteen, young boys and girls especially the girls are prone in having pimples, blackheads and whiteheads due to hormonal changes and physical developments. After it grows on your face it will leave a dark spot scar that will definitely ruin up your looks and drop down your confidence.

However, here are tips for you to follow and see for yourself the radiance and glow of your facial skin after the nightmare of having pimples!

Cleanse your make-up off thoroughly before going to bed for it may be clogged the pores or cause irritation if you do not do so. If you are so tired from work or school always use ice as face pack for it helps in relaxing and refreshing the face.


Homeroom tip that can be useful too is that mix turmeric powder, cream, sandal powder, gram flour and made a paste and apply to face for half-an-hour once a day before taking a bath for it will keep your face smooth and fresh all day long.

Also, mix a quarter cup of honey with a quarter teaspoon ground cloves and apply on face and leave it for about fifteen minutes then rinse it off.

And here are the unbeatable ways that you should do in order to maintain a beautiful and radiant face. Drink plenty of water and eat balanced diet! Got it?

Most of the time, pimple always attack our skin and just make our lives miserable! Here are pimple treatment basics for you to be guided in clearing those pimples around. All homemade so it is very affordable and really safe against harsh chemicals. First, apply a paste made from nutmeg, pepper and a little water on the pimples and let it dry then wash it off after.

Avoid taking oily foods, sweets, fries and potatoes instead take a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables with your diet. Use only medicated soap by physicians if possible to avoid spreading it then never pinch out your pimples for it may cause scar on your face.

However, if there are pimple scars on your face that makes it dark and dull then you should try bleaching it using the safest way.


Take note that bleaching has chemicals that merge into the skin and lighten facial hair. Scientifically speaking it is not removal of superfluous hair but it makes it considerably less noticeable. The three kinds of bleach are all unkind to skin and its harmful effects vary from person to person.

Homemade recipe for bleaching include a mix of two tablespoons of milk powder, mix in an enough liquid hydrogen peroxide to make thick paste and if hair is very coarse and dark, mix in a drop or two of liquid ammonia. This is considered to be the least harmful way of bleaching since the powder milk in the mixture moisturizes the skin while bleaching, preventing skin burns and other harmful reactions.

The next bleaching way is the powder bleach. Mix the bleaching powder with liquid hydrogen peroxide and ammonia to form a thick paste liquid. Lastly, the cream bleach which is readymade in the markets it is easiest to use yet the most harmful way.

Bleaching to have a fairer skin and a radiant white beauty is not bad at all but make sure you are doing it the safest way to have no regrets at the end. Make sure to take good care of your face and always be hygienic to avoid it getting harm. It is always better to prevent than to cure a facial problem.