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Meditation : Your Key to A Better Life

Posted by AJ Wednesday, August 22, 2012 0 comments

Meditation and yoga are two very good practices for your situation.Most thinking humans do is pointess and often negative, such as worrying about things and complaining. If you are relatively new to meditation you may not be aware of the huge ammount of pointless thining going on in your mind because it tends to happen in the background while you are going about your daily activities.

Meditating allows you to become aware of your internal thought processes. this awareness gives you the oportunity to turn off the switch on negative trains of thought. (which are realy not needed) As you do this more and more, cancelling these unnecessesary thoughts becomes a habbit and you will slowy start to find yoursef doing it automatically. 

So in this way practicing meditation builds on itself. this will cause a range of benifits such as feeling happy, feeling a lot more secure. Having much more emotional and physical energy. (because it's not being dr
ained away by worry). Improved health. And a general sense of deep and lasting peace.
no matter whats going on in your life. To meditate you need to use a technique, while there are many different techniques they mostly involve doing something repetative over and over again.

In that way your thinking is put to work on something neutral and fairly mundane. (cocentrating on a candle flame, moving beads between your fingers, counting to four over and over, concentrating on your breath etc.) The point is that your mind can only do one thing at a time so while your attention is focused on the "meditation activity" your mind is less able to wander away into unconcious thinking.

After you meditate for ten minutes or an hour, you will feel much better. That's because your mental energy is stronger. It hasnt been scattered all over the place as it normally would have been.





Have An Ageless Body & A Timeless Mind





Thanks,

AJ

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Strengthening Your Core: Right and Wrong ways to do Lunges, Squats, and Planks

Posted by AJ Thursday, July 19, 2012 0 comments


What do slouching, back pain, and a middling forehand or weak shot off the tee have in common? Often it’s a weak core—the girdle of muscles, bones, and joints that links your upper and lower body. Your core gives you stability and helps power the moves you make every day. Whether it’s bending to pick up a laundry basket, swinging a golf club, paddling a kayak, or reaching to pull a vase from the top shelf of a cabinet, a strong and flexible core makes the move more fluid, efficient, and robust. Strong, well-balanced core muscles can also improve your posture and help prevent back injuries. And if back pain does strike, core exercises are usually part of the rehab regimen.



Core Muscles


Your core is composed of many different muscles in the abdomen, back, sides, pelvis, and buttocks. These muscles work together to allow you to bend, twist, rotate, and stand upright.


For all these reasons, more and more people are incorporating core exercises into their fitness routines. If you’re among them, or planning to be, it’s critical to pay attention to proper form. “Good form protects you from injury and helps you gain the most benefit from each exercise,” says Joy Prouty, a master trainer who helped develop Harvard Medical School’s Core Exercise report, which includes tips on proper alignment, form, and posture. “But when I walk around the gym, I see people doing these exercises the wrong way all the time.”


Lunges, squats, and planks (a move that looks a bit like a push-up and is often substituted for sit-ups) are key moves in most good core workouts. Sit-ups and crunches—once the bread and butter of core work—have fallen out of favor in recent years. Why? They can actually cause back pain, partly by focusing only on abdominal muscles. Exercises like planks efficiently work many more core muscles at once. So whether you’re launching into your first core workout or have been planking, lunging, and squatting your way to a tightly toned core for quite some time, reviewing the right—and wrong—ways to do these three fundamental moves is worthwhile.



Core Exercises: 3 workouts to tighten your abs, strengthen your back, and improve balance is available from Harvard Health Publications. You can read an excerpt here from the report with tips on checking and improving your posture.


Core Exerise #1: Plank

Right



•Abdominal muscles are tight.

•Shoulders are aligned directly over the elbows.

•Body is properly aligned so that neck and spine are neutral. Model is looking down at the floor.

•Shoulders are down and back.

•Only toes, forearms, and hands are touching the floor.
Wrong



•Head is lifted and neck is craned

•Torso sags toward the floor. Only toes, forearms, and hands should be touching the floor.

•Neck and spine are not in a straight line.


Core Exerise #2: Squat

Right



•Knees, hips, and toes are pointing forward.

•Buttocks stay above knee level.

•Knees aren’t extending beyond toes.

•Chest is lifted, and shoulders are down and back

•Back is neutral, not arched.

•Feet and knees are pointing straight ahead.

•Shoulders, hips, and knees are even.

•Abdominal muscles are pulled in.

Wrong



•Back is arched, and chest isn’t lifted.

•Arms are overextended.

•Knees extend beyond her toes.

•Knees and toes are turned in.


Core Exerise #3: Lunge

Right





•Knee of the forward leg is aligned with the ankle.

•Heel of the rear leg is lifted off the floor.

•Back knee bends enough to form a straight line from shoulder to hip to knee.

•Back is neutral, and chin is parallel to the floor

•Shoulders and hips are even.

•Abdominal muscles are pulled in.
Wrong




•Body is slouching forward, not upright.

•Knee is not properly bent to form a straight line from shoulders to knees to hips.

•Back is curved and head is lifted.

So Guys, keep doing your favourite core exercise in proper form to live your awesome life.

Have An Ageless Body & Timeless Mind.

Thanks,

AJ
Knowledge Source : http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/

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The 15 Benefits of Squats

Posted by AJ Tuesday, July 17, 2012 1 comments


SQUARTS is always considered to be the big time exercise on the fitness arena. It has the highest benefit to overall body and some even considered it as there is nothing better than this if you want to build muscle or if you want to slim down,  it works either way.
There is research that dates back to 1989 done by Auburn University that  regular squatting improved knee stability, strengthened connective tissue, and made connective tissue tighter and stronger than those who don’t squat. More recently, physiologists at the Mayo Clinic have found that squats actually place less stress on your knees than leg extensions – an exercise often prescribed as a ‘knee-saving’ alternative to squats. 
The Benefits of Squats
1. Squats Create An Anabolic Environment. No other exercise on the planet (with the possible exception of the deadlift) does more to promote overall muscle growth. This means, not only will the squat build muscles directly related to the exercise itself – like your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves – it also indirectly promotes muscle growth across the rest of your body, in places like your biceps, chest, and back (for examples).
2. Maintain Mobility. Researchers at Ball State University say that leg strength is critical for maintaining mobility as we age. There’s no better exercise at maintain and increasing leg strength than the squat.
3. Increase Functional Strength. Very few exercises are as natural as the squat. Since the very beginning of time, man has been squatting down to pick berries, gather food, light fires, and even cook. It makes sense than that the squat builds pure, functional strength. Not only do they build huge amounts of muscle, the squat also forces your body’s nerve networks to work your muscles more efficiently.
4. Increase Your Vertical Jump. A variation of the traditional squat, jump squats have been proven to increase your vertical jump by about 30 percent in a period as little as 8 weeks.
5. Increase Sprint Times. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a study in 2002 that stated squatting allowed participants in the study to increase their sprint times by a significant degree. The correlation between speed and strength is thought to play a big role in this.
6. Entire Body Workout (almost). There is arguably no other exercise that works more muscles than the squat. If you were only to do one exercise for the rest of your life, the squat would make an excellent choice.
7. Growth Hormones and Testosterone. These anabolic hormones are vital for muscle growth, and the squat stimulates your body to produce these more than any other exercise. Want bigger biceps? Add squats to your routine.
8. Sports and Performance. Not only will it make you jump higher and sprint faster, as I mentioned above, it will make you stronger and more explosive no matter what your particular sport is. It’s no wonder squats are part of the regular training regimen of every professional athlete.
9. Increase Upper Body Strength. Due to the large amounts of growth hormone and testosterone released by squatting, your upper body will grow larger and stronger than it would had you not regularly implemented squats into your workouts.
10. Tone and Tighten Your Butt. I implore you to find an exercise that’ll give you a nicer looking rear-end than the squat. Don’t believe me? Go give it a try yourself.
11. Improve Balance. As we age, nerve endings and connective tissue degenerate naturally. Squats have been proven to improve the communication between your brain and your body’s major muscle groups, and improve muscle memory. This carries into your later years and goes a long way in preventing falls and broken hips.
12. Prevent Injuries. Nearly 90% of athletic injuries involve the weaker stabilizer muscles, ligaments, and connective tissue. By using a free standing compound exercise that requires good balance (aka, the squat), you’ll do a lot to reduce the risk of injury.
13. Multi-Purpose. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beanpole and want to bulk up, or if your shape more closely resembles that of a bean itself and you want to slim down, the squat is absolutely necessary if you’re serious about your goal.
14.Gain Flexibility. If you ever want proof that weight training doesn’t reduce flexibility and won’t make you muscle bound, the squat is it. Give squats a go for a couple of months, you’ll definitely feel the difference in flexibility.
15. They’ll Give You Great Abs. If you’ve got a body fat percentage that’s low enough, and you squat regularly, you’ll quickly find that you have no need to do a lot of work on your abs. In fact, some of the best sets of abs I’ve ever seen have been the product of squats, and squats alone.
*Important Note* – Don’t do squats if you don’t use proper technique. This is how you injure yourself; this is how you get bad knees. Take the time to learn how to squat, and start by using only the bar with no additional weight. Only once you’ve mastered your technique should you begin progressing with weights.
Have An Ageless Body & A Timeless Mind.
Thanks,
AJ

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Basic Yoga - The Bow Pose :Strengthen Your Back

Posted by AJ Wednesday, February 8, 2012 0 comments

This yoga pose expands the chest, mobilizes the entire spinal column, and can be a welcome change to the usual movement of your body. The Bow Pose is a good exercise to improve posture and strengthen the back muscles.

STEP 1: Lie on your stomach, arms on your sides, and palms facing upward.


STEP 2: Bend your knees. Bring your heels near your buttocks.



STEP 3: Reach back with your arms and grasp your ankles. Let your weight rest on your stomach and not on your pelvis.


STEP 4: Raise your knees further by pulling your ankles with your hands. 




Continue breathing regularly and try to increase the stretching in the chest and the backward bend for a relaxed body and mind. If you like you can end this exercise by letting go of your legs without letting them move towards the floor and building up some extra strength by "floating" over your Yoga Mat.

 Have an Ageless Body & a Timeless Mind.

 Thanks,

 AJ

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Basic Yoga : Cobra Pose - Heal Lower Back Pain

Posted by AJ Monday, February 6, 2012 0 comments


The Cobra Pose or Bhujangasana is a great exercise for people with lower back aches. This posture decreases stiffness in the lower back, enlarges the chest, and strengthens the arms and shoulders. This Asana is also good to combat menstrual irregularities, and it helps relieve stress. 

Learn how to perform the Cobra Pose in this section.

STEP 1: Lie on your belly, while your head rests on your lower arms.





STEP 2: Raise your forehead, look upwards and stretch your hands backwards. Let your weight rest on your chest.




STEP 3: The head falls a little backwards towards your back and the backward movement proceeds from the neck and the chin. Move your belly further backward as if someone is pulling your arms. The weight is more and more shifted towards the belly and the lower back does the real work. 


STEP 4: If you cannot raise your chest any further, put your hands and arms next to your chest on the mat without losing the bend. Stretch your arms so that they stand perpendicular on the floor and at the same time turn your arms a little inward. Relax your lower back and bear your weight with your arms.


STEP 5: The buttock muscles remain relaxed during the exercise. Move your chest further upwards with every breathing out. Do this in a relaxed way instead of using force. You can tilt your head back. The shoulders are broad in front and the shoulder blades remain low. 



Build up the exercise in a quiet way. When the lower back is stiff, this exercise may cause the lower back to feel a little painful and uncomfortable. This is normal and will pass away as the stiffness decreases. In spite of the uncomfortable feeling that you may sometimes experience, this exercise is highly recommended for people with a stiff lower back or pain in the lower back.

Have an Ageless Body and a Timeless Mind

Thanks,

AJ

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Basic Yoga : Wind Relieving Pose - Vatayanasana

Posted by AJ Sunday, February 5, 2012 0 comments

In continuation to my earlier posts on Basic Yoga, here I am explaining about the Wind Relieving Pose or Vatayanasana. This Yoga for is very simple and it has a very effective role in purifying your stomach and body at large. Due to irregular food habit and unhealthy life style most of the people suffer from gastric in the intestine and as doctors says if it exist for prolong period it may leads to many severe ailments. In yoga it is considered to free your intestine and stomach from all such gases will purify your body and with regular practice of this asana it will heal your gastric problem permanently.


This wind relieving pose also help you in healing stiffness in your spine. So, for most of the people who are working at office constantly sitting for hours doing this asana after the work is really more then a solution.


How to do it ?


STEP 1: Lie on the Yoga Mat.

STEP 2: Raise your left knee.
STEP 3: Wrap your hands around your left knee.
STEP 4: Raise your head towards your knee. Breathe, release. Repeat with the right leg. You can also do the rocking motion slowly with rhythm. 

Remember that while practicing the Wind Relieving Pose, resist the tendency to raise the lower back or buttocks off the ground and try to keep the leg that is on the mat as straight as possible. 

Aside from releasing unwanted gases from the intestines and stomach, the exercise will also massage the abdominal organs.

Have an Ageless Body and  a Timeless Mind.

Thanks,

Ajay



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Basic Yoga: Sun Salutation - Surya Namaskar

Posted by AJ Saturday, February 4, 2012 0 comments

SURYA NAMASKAR - SUN SALUTATION : HOW TO DO IT ?

In continuation to my earlier posts The Most Hazardous Fat On Your Stomach and Basic Yoga Asanas For Stomach , in this post and subsequent post I am going to explain the exact procedure of the basic yoga asanas.

As explained in my previous post Basic Yoga Asanas For Stomach the Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation is the most basic and most powerful for of  yoga. Rightly practices regularly it empower you body and mind with infinite energy.

HOW TO DO IT ?


The Sun Salutation Pose or Surya Namaskar is a flowing series of 12 poses which help improve strength and flexibility of the muscles and spinal column. This pose also warms up the body and tones the abdominal muscles. So take your yoga accessories and learn how to perform the Yoga Sun Salutation Pose easy-to-follow steps. 



STEP 1: Stand on your yoga mats and start with theYoga Mountain Pose. Bring your palms together in prayer position. Exhale.







STEP 2: As you inhale, raise your arms overhead, keeping your palms together.











STEP 3: Exhale and then bend forward until your hands touch your feet.











STEP 4: As you inhale, step the right leg back, arch back and lift your chin.









STEP 5: Exhaling, step the left leg back into plank position. Keep your spine and legs in a straight line and support your weight on hands and feet.








STEP 6: Retaining the breath, lower your knees, your chest and then your forehead, keeping your hips up and toes curled under.






STEP 7: Inhaling, stretch forward and bend back. Keep your arms straight.











STEP 8: Exhaling, curl your toes under, press down into your heels, and lift your hips.






STEP 9: As you inhale, bring your right leg forward, with the top of the foot stretched out flat on the floor, and lift your chin.









STEP 10: Exhale and then bend forward until your hands touch your feet.







STEP 11: Inhaling, stretch your arms forward and over your head. Slowly bend backward from the waist.








STEP 12: Exhaling, gently come back to Tadasana.







As with all other Yoga Exercises and poses, make sure to perform the Sun Salutation Pose correctly to achieve optimum results. 

Have an Ageless Body and a Timeless Mind.

Thanks,

AJ

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Lifestyle Changes to Fight Cancer

Posted by AJ Thursday, February 2, 2012 0 comments

Cancer is well-known to everyone and this article is about the benefits of fitness and eating healthy during and after a diagnosis of any kind of cancer.There are different types of cancer and Each has its limitations, but if one can keep a healthy body, they can have a better chance to overcome this awful disease.


This article is contributed by one of my good friend David Haas.  

Cancer Recovery Pyramid

Lifestyle changes such as a healthier diet and more physical fitness are common New Year’s resolutions; just about everyone resolves to work out more, exercise smarter and better and eat right. People view the New Year as a new start and therefore tend to make their resolutions then. However, there is no time like the present to make the resolution to get more exercise, especially if you have cancer and are undergoing mesothelioma treatment to fight your cancer.

Your doctor will tell you that the best thing you can do while undergoing cancer treatments is to make major lifestyle changes. Get more exercise and eat better are the top two changes on his list. The reason your doctor wants you to do this is probably less out of vanity than your reasons for wanting to do this, but the end goal is the same: to be healthy and happy.

Cancer treatment takes a lot out of a person; the chemicals that are pushed into your body are difficult on you; you will become tired, withdrawn and often weak. Your body needs as much strength as possible to help you deal with this, to give you more energy and to adapt to the treatment in a way that lets you live a life with more quality. Quality of life is so important when dealing with cancer. The most important aspect of exercise when it comes to dealing with cancer is your ability to fight the disease. Your immune system is negatively affected by your cancer; the stress of undergoing treatment and worrying about everything you worry about takes a toll on your immune system and it becomes less capable of fighting the cancer alongside your treatment. The positive hormones produced by exercise help to fight the negative effects that stress has on your immune system and allows you to build your immune system back up to help fight the disease. You will feel better; the treatment will not make you as tired and withdrawn as it would without regular exercise.

In addition, your body will become stronger. Your other organs and your muscles will become stronger, which makes you stronger. Your mind will become stronger because of the positive energy that exercise promotes; you will be in a better mood, which will allow you to better handle the stress you are under and you will be able to manage a better quality of life. Take this into consideration and make a lifestyle change for the better, today. Being diagnosed with cancer is no reason to give up; it is the best reason to jump start your life and make it as positive as possible through a healthy diet and exercise.

Let's help the people who are going through cancer and support them to come out of it as a winner. Awareness doesn't cure the disease, but surely it support the people who are fighting. 

About David : David is a cancer patient advocate who cares very much about the well-being of people not only diagnosed with cancer but also their families and those who are in remission. He believes that "We can beat this disease together".

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About Me

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I am A Fitness Enthusiast & A Laws of Attraction Practitioner. I love to learn and share the way of keeping mind, body & Soul young, agile, dynamic and ever motivated. I believe in "every desire of heart can be a living reality if we truly understand and take care of our body & Soul and the Universe at large". Life is all about making everyday count and making it better & better. Having an Ageless Body and a Timeless Mind with total abundance of Joy, Happiness, Laughter. With my blogs I share my thoughts, learning & ideas to a better life "A Life in Total Awesomeness".

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