Tag: Fitness

Sometimes life throws a bit of a curve and you have trouble sleeping. I tend to sleep pretty well most of the time but when stresses of work get a little high it is not my eating that suffers but my sleep instead. I found this list fromt the National Sleep Foundation that gives a few little ideas of how you can improve your sleeping. For more information you can visit a website dedicate to sleeping

Tips for Better Sleep

Set a schedule – Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. “Sleeping in” on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it re-sets your sleep cycles for a later awakening.

Exercise – Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise often helps people sleep, although a workout soon before bedtime may interfere with sleep. For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol – Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake. Sources of caffeine include coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal teas, diet drugs, and some pain relievers. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep.

Relax before bed – A warm bath, reading, or another relaxing routine can make it easier to fall sleep. You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual.

Sleep until sunlight – If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body’s internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep.

Don’t lie in bed awake – If you cant get to sleep, don’t just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading, watching television, or listening to music, until you feel tired. The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia.

Control your room temperature – Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep.

See a doctor if your sleeping problem continues – If you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, then you may have a sleep disorder and should see a physician. Your primary care physician may be able to help you; if not, you can probably find a sleep specialist at a major hospital near you. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively, so you can finally get that good night’s sleep you need.

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It is a great idea to do back exercises at home if you want to improve your core strength and overall fitness. Many people ignore the back when they are working out, just because they cannot see it. Instead, they want to develop firm abs or strong biceps and triceps that look good in the mirror.

But forgetting about your back is dangerous. Overdeveloping the abs and chest without strengthening the muscles of the back can lead to injuries that could throw out your program for weeks or even months. Plus, remember that even if you cannot see your back, other people can! So it is important for looking good too.

Back Exercises At Home

A quick warning. If you are wanting to do back exercises at home because you have some back or neck pain or injury, then you should see a doctor or back pain specialist before doing any fitness program. The exercises that we describe here are intended for people who are in good health with no back pain or past injuries.

There are three main muscle groups that we need to consider when doing Back Exercises At Home. These are:

Back Exercises At Home- Muscles to Work

1. Traps (trapezius), which run from the neck across the shoulder blades. A second important group of upper back muscles is the rhomboids.

2. Lats (latissimus dorsi), which means ‘broadest muscle of the back’. These are triangular, with one point under the arm, another at the spine above the waist, and the third at the top of the hip.

3. Erector spinae, which run either side of the spine. When they are strong they help to prevent lower back pain and injury.

The Best Back Exercises At Home

The ‘bent over row’ is a great back exercise for traps, rhomboids and lats that you can do at home, either with or without s.

If you have dumbbells that you can use when you do back exercises at home, take one in each hand and bend forward from the waist with knees slightly bent. Your back can be anywhere between a 45 degree angle and 90 degrees (parallel with the floor); arms straight down but without locking the elbows. If you do not have dumbbells you can use small plastic bottles filled with water.

Lift and then lower the s in a steady rowing motion, bending the elbows until the upper arm is in line with the body. Lower arms still hang straight down. Try to keep shoulders relaxed, not up around the ears.

Aim for up to 3 sets of 5-16 reps.

For the erector spinae and lower back, try ‘good mornings’.

Stand with feet about hip width apart, knees slightly bent and arms stretched overhead. You can use dumbbells or water bottles if you want to.

Bend forward, keeping the back straight and abs braced. Keep the arms in line with the torso so at the end you are bent with the arms stretched out in front, torso and arms parallel with the floor, and face down looking at the floor. Raise back up and repeat.

Start with just 1 set of 5 or 10 reps with no or a light , and gradually increase to up to 3 sets of 10-16 reps with medium s.

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It is important to work all of the muscles of the back so that none are left weak and susceptible to injury. Be sure to do a variety of back exercises at home.

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Arginine is an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of protein. For many years now lifters and young bodybuilders have been supplementing with Arginine as it has a lot going for it and can be harder to get in your diet.

A new piece of reserach seems to show that it would also be helpful for older people in cardio type training running or cycling.

Arginine for Cycling

Taking arginine supplements can improve the cycling ability of over-50s. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition tested a combination of the amino acid and an antioxidant in sixteen cyclists, finding that it enhanced their anaerobic threshold — the amount of work done before lactic acid begins to accumulate in the blood.

Zhaoping Li worked with a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, to carry out the randomized controlled trial. She said,

“The loss of exercise capacity with age often results in a reduction in physical fitness and more rapid senescence.

A dietary supplement that increases exercise capacity might help to preserve physical fitness by optimizing performance and improving general health and well being in older people.”

The Role Of Nitric Oxide and Aging

One way in which older people may lose their exercise capacity revolves around the signaling molecule nitric oxide, which is involved in many physiological processes, including those related to working out. Nitric Oxide production diminishes in quantity and availability as we age and is associated with an increased prevalence of other cardiovascular risk factors.

In the body, Nitric Oxide is created from the amino acid arginine and is inactivated by oxygen free radicals. By supplementing diet with both the precursor and an anti-oxidant, the researchers hoped to support the Nitric Oxide system in the cyclists and thereby enhance performance.