We saw how exercises such as The Lat Pull down behind the head, the Military Press behind the head, the Upright Row and the prone leg press with the knees bending too much can be the cause of certain injuries. In addition, the following exercises are also not advisable:

Squats on the Smith Machine: Squatting with weights is certainly good for upping intensity of a squat, and it is of course possible to do squats on a Smith Machine, however this can get risky.

The reason is that the bar does not give and because it remains rigid, the body can inadvertently contort into positions that can increase the risk of injury. People often do not do this exercise using the correct form, and they put their feet far out in front of the body.

So it is better to not use a machine but rather use free weights when doing the squat, while being careful of using good form.

Bad form for Cardio Workouts: When we talk about good form, it isn’t only weights and resistance exercise we talk about. Cardio should also be performed using good form.

So it is important not to hunch over that exercycle or the treadmill, and not to grip the supports too hard. This can cause your spine, elbows and shoulders to jar and can spoil your alignment as well.

When doing cardio, make sure it isn’t so tough that you can barely do it. Maintain good posture, a natural body position and light grip and pay attention for a good and effective cardio workout.

‘Ab’ Exercise or ‘thigh’ exercise: Doing any kind of exercise or using any machine that promises ‘spot’ reduction is useless. The fact is that you cannot do anything to lose weight from a particular area of the body.

The weight has to be all over; otherwise exercising any one group of muscles will do nothing beyond tone and firm them. If fat still overlays them, the most exercised abs will still be invisible. So aim for all over weight loss by boosting metabolism and not ‘spot’ reduction.

Routinely wearing a weight belt: For those that have a medical condition or injury that indicates its use, or for those that are lifting very heavy weights, a weight belt may make sense.

However, don’t use it as a matter of course; this will cause the core muscles to not work as hard and slack off, consequently becoming weak.

Sometimes, it gets so boring being under a strict diet or staying for long hours at the gym. Your best alternative is to go ballroom dancing.

Don’t you know that dancing is one of the best exercises around? Ballroom dancing, for instance, allows you to move all parts of your body. This way you stay fit and have fun at the same time.

Here are other reasons why ballroom dancing can make you healthier:

1. Burns fats naturally

If you want to lose those excess weights, ballroom dancing can help you. You have to swing; tango, and jive in ballroom dancing and these dance moves can shed off fats.

2. Improves posture

Ballroom dancing also helps improve your posture. It is not just all about movements but grace and style as well. You learn to balance yourself and stay in tune with your partner.

3. Keeps you stress-free

One way to relax those tired muscles is by ballroom dancing. You can fight stress by engaging in this wholesome activity.

Ballroom dancing is a fun way to stay strong and healthy. You can even do it together with your loved ones and friends.

It is that which gives us the inspiration to make a start; the confidence to persist. Here are some tips you can use:

• Eat fewer calories, exercise more: when eating out, cut out the trimmings such as the onion rings, ask for a vinegar based dressing over a mayo dressing, the fries on the side. Choose leaner meat cuts. If you are already exercising, increase the intensity or the duration.
• Count the calories to eat a little less than the particular requirement for your height and body type.
• If the weight loss is slow; don’t worry. That is actually likely to be a good sign that you will be able to keep it off.
• This will take courage: give away the fat clothes. This will remind you to keep to the straight and narrow: if you find that your nice new wardrobe is starting to feel a bit snug after a while this will act as a wake up call.
• If you don’t enjoy the working out and the cutting back so much, don’t worry; you soon will.

Source: Science Blog

In order to arm yourself from these ailments, people have to exercise and go on a diet.

However, going to the gym everyday can eat up too much time while outdoor exercises such as walking and jogging take too much effort. No wonder, many people are now buying their own home gym equipment.

Having your personal gym equipment is expensive but it is more beneficial and practical in the long run. It is good to invest on gym equipment since you can use it anytime and anywhere you want.

Further, you no longer have to pay for gym membership fees and save yourself the trouble of going to the gym daily. With your own gym equipment, you are assured of sticking to your exercise regimen regardless of time and weather conditions.

Home gym equipment can be very expensive. In order to get your money’s worth; you must use it properly. When using your equipment, make sure you set it up correctly.

Adjust whatever it is that needs adjustment to fit your body, height, and capability. If needed, ask an instructor to help you start on your own gym equipment. Use smooth and precise movements.

If you want your gym equipment to last for a long time, you must take good care of it. Here are some tips you can apply:

Check your gym equipment regularly
As a responsible owner, you have to conduct a regular check-up on your gym equipment. See if there are cracks, tears, and other signs of damage on them so you can immediately repair them before they get worse. Check for loose screws and knobs and tighten them to avoid accidents.

Conduct regular maintenance

Just like how you ensure your car is in good working condition, you must do the same with your gym equipment. Oil your exercise machines regularly to avoid rust.

Clean and wipe dust off your equipment. After using, wipe sweat off the seat, bench, or handles of your machines to prevent them from getting stinky and dirty.

Store correctly

Gym equipment does not only refer to exercise machines like treadmills, exercise bikes, and rowing machines. They also refer to other equipment used when exercising like dumbbells, weights, ropes, wobble boards and many more. Store them in a cool dry place and never leave them behind after using to avoid tripping down on them.

Use wisely

If your gym equipment is run by electric power, check the wires regularly. Always unplug your machine if it is not in use to save electricity. Don’t play with your equipment or perform inappropriate exercises on them.

Observe child safety

Never allow your children to even to get near your gym equipment. Accidents can happen. Remember that kids are naturally curious they may stick their finger on your treadmill or try to lift the weights themselves. If possible, place your gym equipment in your bedroom or in any secured room in the house.

So if any of these are part of your fitness routine, do yourself a favor, and cut them out:

The Lat Pull down behind the head: The lat pull down should be done while keeping the spine straight and when you do it behind the head, your head is likely leaning forward, unless you have unusually flexible shoulder joints.

This exercise increases the risk of several injuries such as a shoulder impingement, a rotor cuff tear or even injury to the cervical vertebrae.

Instead you should be pulling the lat bar down in front of your body up to the breast bone. Contracting your abs at the same time as doing this exercise makes for good form.

The Military Press behind the head: Similar to the lat pull down done behind the head, any weights or barbells that you pump up and down behind your head is an invitation to injury so avoid this shoulder move.

What is safer is to perform this exercise in front of the head and if doing it seated, make sure you sit straight even if using back support, letting your back assume its natural curve.

The Upright Row: When you are doing weights that you pull up under and towards the chin, what is sometimes called the upright row, this is not at all advisable. This is going to be a fairly awkward looking exercise as well.

What this move does is, it impinges on the shoulder thereby compressing the nerves in the shoulder area. Rather than using a barbell to do the upright row, use dumbbells to work your arms inward and outward to the sides or to the front of the body.

The Prone leg press with the knees bending too much: The leg press is an effective lower body work out that will exercise your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, which involves pushing the plate back and forth with your feet placed flat on it.

It is however important for there not to be too big a range of motion here. If you bending your knees back too much this is bad for your knees as well as your back. Rule of thumb here is, don’t bend any more than 90 degrees as the knee.

Usually brides tend to push themselves harder dieting and trying to handle both the stress and strong emotions coming with the event and their silhouette that needs to stay fit in order to compliment the wedding gown they choose.

Still… a nice way to get into shape is following a smart diet plan and getting the body into looking great by making the best of a smart fitness routine.

WeddingChannel.com comes with a cool idea of combining these two into a program for intelligent brides and shares with them the right steps towards a slender figure and a successful fitness plan.

Marco Borges , a notorious name in the fitness world populated by the Hollywood stars like Beyonce, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake, is joining Wedding Channel to present the right ideas that would help a busy bride get fitted and look amazing for her wedding day.

The brides can choose from targeting the areas with special problems such as hips and waistline, follow a weekly fitness program under the direct guidance and advice from Marco during a special routine spread over the weeks before the wedding; and share their opinions with other brides.

The program is associated with a diet plan smartly structured for every meal of the day with the exact purpose of getting the bride to look amazing for her most important day in white.

Even more, the brides can join a cool sweepstakes and get the chance to win a full fitness lady costume from Lady Footlocker and also the Power Moves DVD from Marco Borges.

It’s never been simpler than now for a busy bride to get slim and perfectly fit for her wedding dress. It seems Wedding Channel has got the right recipe and it is glad to share it with the brides of the world. Take a close look: WeddingChannel.com

The study was conducted by Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston by questioning over 19,000 women about their drinking habits. The 38% who were teetotal among them gained the most weight over a 13 year period. It was noted that the women who gained least weight were the red wine drinkers, less than those who drank beer and spirits.

However, before you rush to down the closest bottle of plonk you can find, be warned that red wine is not a weight loss aid of any sort. While the benefits of wine are not in question, the reason that the study found what it did, probably bases itself on a typical scenario: It envisages wine drinking women who gain less weight because at the end of a day one woman may have a bar of chocolate to unwind whereas another may have a glass of wine. Obviously the glass of wine has fewer calories and may therefore lead to less weight gain over the years.

The vital fact underlined by this study is merely that moderation is the key to fit and healthy body.

Source: The Telegraph

Perhaps the truth is somewhere in-between: some exercise is better than none!

There are several things that set apart the Wii Fit games from other video games; chief among them being the unique balance board. This is able to measure BMI based on the height and weight of the user.

There are 50 possible activities with the balance board, with categories such as aerobics, balance games, yoga and strength training. Some of the top games for Wii Fit are:

Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 includes motion based fitness activities such as monkey bars, ladder climbing, rowing etc and using the balance board is able to track personal fitness and progress. The aim of the program is strength training, weight loss hill climb etc.

Shaun White Snowboarding is as the name suggests, about a simulated snowboarding experience. The game claims to let you do everything you would at the mountain (but presumably were too scared to actually try because this game offers options such as doing different tricks on the ground in the air and on rail).

You can careen down slopes, create new paths in the back country and use the terrain park for yet more tricks. A generic Park city, Japan, Europe and Alaska are areas you can explore.

We Ski is also about the lure of snowy wherein up to 4 players can hit the slopes. You can choose from 14 set courses ranked according to the level of expertise.

Skate it, is again a self explanatory and skaters get to choose the kind of skate board they want and create a fantasy park of their choice to play around in. There are features such as benches, rails and ramps to keep things exciting.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party is another really popular Wii game that lets you use your rear end to play up to 65 games that have spoofs from TV, and other popular culture to keep you interested. Shaking, precision, dexterity and balance are some of the elements included in the game.

The weight loss beyond the 10% is what is the more difficult part and with the same amount of effort and caloric restrictions one finds no progress being made.

The problem here is that the body’s defense mechanism against weight loss kicks in which is why you have to:

• Increase activity. Not only is it the genes that prevent further weight loss, hormones also have an impact. After menopause women find their metabolism slows down and they find that they expend fewer calories than before.  So what was getting results earlier won’t do the job any more. Duration or intensity of workouts would therefore have to be increased.
• Track intake: It is easy to lose track of what you eat and drink, with the accent being on drink. Often we don’t take into account calories that may come from beverages and snacks. This is what adds up. However when you keep a scrupulous account of total calories consumed you are more likely to be able to lose weight.
• Combine good diet with exercise: understand what when one loses weight and gets smaller, fewer calories than before are required to do the same activities. Also only controlling diet is not easy. It has to be balanced with appropriate activity and exercise. This is because when deprived of calories, the body will burn muscle rather than fat, which is why one needs to maintain a proper balance of exercise and diet control.

Source: TheProvince.com

The most common antioxidants are those foods that contain large amount of vitamins A, C, and E.

Many companies also started manufacturing supplements made from natural antioxidants like herbs.

Studies proved that they do not only cleanse the body, but serve many other purposes. Here are some of them:

1. Build a stronger immune system

Research showed that some of the most dreaded diseases like diabetes and arteriosclerosis are caused by free radicals that cause cell damage. Antioxidants rid the body of these harmful radicals and help prevent diseases from attacking the body by boosting the immune system.

2. Improve metabolism

Antioxidants can also improve your body’s metabolism rate. It will be easier for you to break down food and avoid constipation and diarrhea. The nutrients you get from food are also easily absorbed by your cells.

3. Care for the skin

You don’t need to apply expensive creams nor undergo surgery just to keep your skin young looking. Antioxidants can do the trick. They help prevent skin from sagging and drying.

Antioxidants play a unique role in keeping our body strong, healthy, and protected. Make sure you include food rich in antioxidants in your daily diet.