Most people don’t pay a lot of attention to their breathing technique when they exercise, but breathing the right way can have a significant impact on your fitness, agility and even weight loss.

Read on to find out the right breathing technique for every type of exercise.

Yoga
Controlling your breath is a major part of yoga, since the breath enables the flow of energy through your body. If you are a beginner, you should try to practise sama vritti, or equal breath, where you match the timing and rhythm of your breathing so that your inhales are the same as your exhales. Known as 1:1 breathing, this will help you focus your mind and lower your heart rate and blood pressure.

If you are a yoga veteran, you can try Ujjayi pranayama, or victory breath, which is where you inhale, and keeping your throat in the same position, close your mouth and exhale. This type of breathing should produce a sound from your throat with every breath.

Strength training If you spend a lot of the time at the gym, you’ll know that breathing is an important part of strength training. If you are lifting weights for example, you need to inhale as you lower the weight and exhale as you lift it once again. If you are bench pressing, you need to inhale as you bring the weight down to your chest and exhale as you push it back upwards. Holding your breath for a short stint puts pressure on the chest and helps improve stability, but if you hold it for too long it can prevent the return of blood to the heart, raising your blood pressure.

Running If you prefer to run as your exercise, you should try to match your breathing to your strides to get the perfect rhythm. Not breathing properly while you’re running is what leads to stitches in your side. The best way to breathe while running is to try to take a breath for every two strides. So breathe in, left/right, breathe out, left/right, and so on. This is known as the 2:2 rhythm, and it works for almost all running paces, except for a very fast sprint.

Playing a sport If you are playing a sport like basketball, cricket or football, you should make it a point to breathe from your diaphragm and not your chest, since the diaphragm is the most efficient breathing muscle. Avoid panting, as looking tired makes your opponents more confident about beating you. If you are about to be tackled, take a deep breath right before impact, to help stabilise your core.

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You might have read about how to stay fit at work a dozen times, but how often do you practice what others preach? How many healthy work lunches, office workouts and desk yoga asanas have you attempted lately? If you’re still grappling with how to practice fitness in the office, then take a look at these simple, yet effective, fitness habits. These habits are at the very root of a great work-fitness balance for many fitness enthusiasts. We begin with the popular habit of desk stretches. 

Avoid stiffness from hours of sitting – get stretching: 

Sitting is not a natural posture for the human body. Hours of sitting tightens and lengthens different lower body muscles in a state of perpetual contraction or extension. This means that muscle groups like the hamstrings, glutes, and quads weaken over time. This makes it even tougher for a person who sits for long hours to strengthen the lower body even with exercise. Long hours of sitting also affects your core, causing weak backs and protruding stomachs. The result – lower back pain, an unflattering slouch and a widened pelvic floor.

To avoid this stiffness and weakness:  Get off your chair, stand up and stretch your lower body muscles. Practise quad, hamstring and glute stretches. Add lower back and upper back stretches to the mix. Hold each stretch for 8-10 seconds. 

Avoid dehydration that causes unreasonable hunger pangs – get drinking: 

Most people drink water when eating or right after a meal. However, your body needs a constant supply of water, a few sips now and then, through the day. So keep a bottle of water with a small cup at your desk. 

Sip a cup of water every 45-60 minutes. You could include this with the desk stretches. Try this out for a few days and you’ll notice that you stop craving unhealthy snacks every few hours.

Sit straight – adjust your chair, desk, computer screen and keyboard: 

Do whatever it takes to avoid poor posture at work. Poor posture causes slouching, which leads to an entire chain of unhealthy outcomes. Slouching places strain on the wrong joints, primarily those around the thoracic and lumbar spines. This could be caused by a lower chair, a higher desk, a keyboard that doesn’t have elbow desk space around it, or a computer screen that’s either too close, too far, or too low. 

Ensure that your knees are at 90degrees with the floor. Your back should be straight. Your elbows should be placed on a support (desk or armchair), and your computer screen should be at eye level, i.e., so that you don’t need to bend to see the screen clearly.

Eliminate food that makes you feel uncomfortable:

This covers the entire gamut of advice regarding eating healthy at work. No matter how strong the attraction towards unhealthy junk food in the office canteen or friendly neighbourhood fast-food café, you do realise that certain foods just make you feel sick.

Fried, cheesy, greasy, fattening, salty, sugar-heavy food and drink; these are all foods that leave you bloated, gassy, stuffed and plain unhappy. This could also include lunch debacles like yogurt that warms up and continues to ferment, eventually making you feel bloated when you eat it. It could also include home-cooked food that’s not conducive to packing and storing, like ghee-heavy dal or cereal-loaded tiffins. Identify these foods and arrive at your work comfort foods through the process of elimination.

Be active – use your phone calls for brisk walks and off-the-chair time. 

This is the simplest stay-fit-at-work advice you’ll ever get. What it boils down to is just any excuse to get off your office chair. Got a phone call? Walk around or stand up. Have an informal gathering or meeting? Remain standing for the entire duration. Need to call a colleague? Walk over to his or her desk instead of using instant messaging. Need to re-fill you water bottle? Walk over to the water cooler instead of asking housekeeping to do the job.

Stretch, walk, do a couple of quick lunges, (maybe a couple of push ups, if you have a cubicle), but get active.

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Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

Morning is the best time to affect one’s metabolism process. Metabolism is the rate of burning of sugar and release of energy. The rate at which the energy provided by the food in our system is used up is determined by our metabolic rate. If the metabolic rate is sluggish it leads to accumulation of fats and sugars in the system which in turn leads to weight gain. If you have a high metabolic rate, you will be able to burn off calories faster and be able to ward off the extra weight. Metabolic rate is influenced by different factors such as genetics, weight and age. Even though these factors are out of our control, there are many ways we can influence our metabolism levels. The right choices will lead to the metabolism rate firing up or fizzling down. If you are targeting weight loss, there are certain mistakes which you might be making resulting in slowing down of the metabolism rate.

Eating Too Late

This is a mistake that many people make. Most people do not have time to have breakfast when they rushing off to work or to drop the kids off to school. However, it has been seen that skipping breakfast can be worse for your health. It makes the metabolism rate slow down for the day. As the body is not provided adequate amount of food, the brain signals to the body to conserve energy. Accordingly the fats are stored up instead of getting burnt off. It is imperative that one eats within an hour of waking up. That sparks off the metabolic process called thermogenesis. This turns the food that is eaten into energy. That also makes it ideal to opt for high protein and even calorie laden food items during breakfast rather having it for lunch or dinner. If you feel like having a donut after having an omelet of egg whites, you might as well pack it in with an early breakfast so that you will burn it off during the day.

Not Exercising

Research has shown that one keeps burning calories even after 24 hours after workout, especially when one does resistance training form of exercises. Research also has proven that exercising in the morning leads to more calories being brunt than exercising at any other time of the day. Thus, if you wish to get an effective exercise without going at it for hours, plan a short and quick workout early in the morning. You could get up and go for a run or a walk as suits your physical activity need and preference. When you do high intensity cardio interval training you challenge the fat burning genes more. As a result, the post workout calorie burn is much more. Doing cardio vascular exercises early in the morning on an empty stomach will prove most effective in reducing fat and weight.

Not Doing Resistance Training

Most people think that resistance training is not for them. They feel that cardio vascular exercises are enough to keep them fit. While that is true in most regard, if you wish to develop lean muscles and want to keep the fat burning process going even after you have stopped exercising. It would be wiser to start doing strength training. Strength training involves working with weights but one can even do other forms of resistance training such as high intensity interval training. That leads to similar effects as weight lifting exercises. These kinds of exercises work on the muscle groups and lead to wear and tear. As the muscles start to recover and rebuild themselves, they burn the fat cells in order to get energy. During the time when you rest, the muscles are repairing themselves and burning calories at the same time. Thus, a metabolism boosting workout even for ten minutes included in one’s morning exercise routine will keep the calories burning through the day.

These are some of the great ways one can boost their metabolism. If you are not doing these activities, you are missing out on stepping up your metabolic rate.

Is weight gain weighing you down? Does it not seem to help no matter what measures you take? You need to understand the natural processes within your body with respect to fat burning. The kind of food that helps to burn fat, increase the metabolic rate more need to be known in order to affect weight loss. Again, eating the right food at the right time as well as doing the right amount of physical activity will keep the metabolism active. Even if you are born with a sluggish metabolism, you could do many things to step it up and make it work to your advantage in order to help you lose the fat and keep off the extra weight.

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Why does weight loss feel so difficult? Most people would say it’s because they feel like they have to deprive themselves.

It’s painful to:

• Stop eating foods you love.
• Eat foods you don’t particularly like.
• Miss out on social activities or cut back on them for fear that they’ll derail your weight loss goals.

It’s no surprise then that most people find losing weight difficult. Who would ever choose to feel deprived or unsatisfied?

But what if our thinking about how to lose weight was all wrong? What if the best way to lose weight was actually to NOT feel deprived at all?

So many people believe the “no pain, no gain” approach to weight loss is the most effective. But let me put it this way: If achieving a goal — weight loss or any other — requires being miserable, how motivated would you be to really stick to it? You wouldn’t!

For weight loss to be long-term it has to be pleasant. Otherwise you will always be struggling to stick to it. (And the sad thing is often when you struggle to stick to an unpleasant diet, you blame yourself. But it’s not your fault. It’s the diet that was unsustainable.)

So how do you ensure that weight loss is pleasant AND sustainable? Here are 5 ways:

1. Make tiny changes.

A lot of weight loss advice comes from the “shock and awe” school of thought. You throw out everything in your fridge and completely replace your existing diet with something radically different.

But the more drastic and different your new eating plan, the less likely you are to stick with it, especially when life gets busy. It’s much easier to keep your eating plan relatively the same and then make small changes in the right direction.

he best place to start is food portions. I tell my clients that even reducing portions by as little as 5% is a great start — something anyone can do.

Once you’ve cut back by 5% see how you feel. If you don’t notice that you’re eating less, brilliant! Now cut back 5% more.

n other words, make changes slowly so that you don’t notice them. Over time, lots of tiny changes add up to one big result.

2. Don’t stop doing what you enjoy.

Another popular diet strategy is to stop eating all the foods you love. But is that really sustainable? Of course not.

Instead, prioritize. Instead of eating both a cookie and a chocolate bar, decide which on your like more. Stick with that one, and stop eating the other.

3. Remove temptation.

I know lots of people who keep food on their desk at work. This is often food they really love but also can’t resist.

If you keep candy on your desk, every time you see it you think “Should I have it?” Even if you only give in once in a while, it still means calories are being consumed that you may not even have wanted and wouldn’t have missed if the temptation wasn’t there.

By all means eat candy, but make it a deliberate decision.

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You’ve been doing it about 20,000 times a day since the moment you were born. In fact, you’re doing it right now. More importantly, experts are saying you’re doing it all wrong.

We’re referring to breathing, which seems like such a natural act that we only think of it when we’re huffing and puffing at the end of a 10k—not while walking to work, eating breakfast, or any other normal activity.

What exactly does it mean to say we’re all breathing “wrong?” If you’ve made it this far, it seems like you’ve been doing an OK job. Oxygen is coming in; carbon dioxide is going out. But, according to Noam Tamir, CSCS, founder of TS Fitness in New York City, while we might be getting by, we could be breathing better. In fact, improving our breathing could help to lower blood pressure, decrease stress, improve athletic performance, and maybe even increase brain size.

Breathe In, Breathe Out: Common Breathing Mistakes

When Tamir works with a new client, the first thing he puts them through is the Functional Movement Screen to assess any major muscle imbalances. Closely following the FMS is a breathing assessment. During the evaluation, Tamir is looking for any one or a combination of breathing inefficiencies we’ve developed over time. The term “inefficient breathing” can mean various things depending on who you ask, but for Tamir, it breaks down to these three mishaps:

Chest breathing

Rather than breathing deeply through the belly using the diaphragm, it’s common to see breathing through the top of the chest, Tamir says, which forces the body to rely on other muscles not built for the task at hand. When you breathe through the chest, “you’re using a lot of ancillary muscles, such as those in the neck, that you really don’t need to use.” This can also reinforce neck and shoulder tension common among office workers. Following the age-old principle “Use it or lose it,” this reliance on ancillary muscles also weakens the diaphragm. A weak diaphragm will fatigue easily during exercise, meaning your muscles won’t receive the optimum amount of blood flow during your next CrossFit WOD or 5K.

Shallow breathing

Another bad habit when it comes to our breath? We’re working too hard to get in the oxygen that we need. Rather than taking deep, full breaths, we’re resorting to shallow, quick ones, forcing the body to work overtime to get the same amount of oxygen, Tamir says. This could partly be due to poor posture, most prevalent among those who slump over a screen all day (not to mention gym-goers who overemphasize mirror muscles instead of focusing on balance). With the shoulders hunched forward, we lose part of our ability to expand our diaphragm and take the big, full breaths that can boost workout performance, increase efficiency, and help manage stress.

Lack of rhythm

No, we’re not talking about the kind you would see on the dance floor. If you’ve ever focused on your breathing while running to help pass the time, you’ve likely noticed a specific rhythm to your breath. Perhaps it matched the pace of your footsteps (cadence) or your arm swing. Whatever the pattern, breathing smoothly and rhythmically can play a calming role, particularly in athletes, says Tamir. If your breathing is erratic, it’s hard to get into the zone—whether that’s busting out your last track interval or burning through your last set of squats.

Breathing has a huge impact on our health and fitness, but we’re probably not taking advantage of it just yet. The good news is that anyone can improve their breathing with even a small time investment, Tamir says. And it all starts with basic awareness. Tamir recommends focusing on just your breathing one to two times a day, starting with just one minute at a time. Seem doable? Here’s your playbook for success.

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Without any knowledge about the actual reason there are many people who simply follow others when it comes to doing workouts early in the morning, there are several who think that doing these training sessions early in the morning will leave them to spend their rest of the day with all other tasks or only because people tend to wake up in early hours of the day.

For all those fitness freaks who tend to choose workout during morning should be happy to know that there is a special reason for this especially for all those who are into sports. Going with the choice of workout is to increase the ability of putting up much better performance also improvising on their attitude.

It is necessary that the athletes who desire success should be disciplined which is found mostly among those who get up early for workouts or training sessions. Though it is slightly difficult to get used to the idea of waking up before the sun itself does there are many who have understood the advantage of waking up with this routine helping them put up much better performance throughout that day.

Getting into the scientific reasons there is no denial to the fact that body becomes more efficient after appropriate rest which usually is in higher rate when the body gets sleep at night making the body set out to firing continuously for any challenge. Proper rest will also ensure that the body will be more focused on the tasks that are lined up ahead for the day apart from this they also are known to prepare an individual for any sort of competitions.

However this is not all to the task of setting up alarm to wake up early and jumpstart the day with positive energy there are several other reasons which have huge contribution to even losing fat and help in meeting all the targets set for being fit.

Reasons to get ahead with workout early in the morning are stated below:

1. Focus: Starting a day early with proper training session will ensure that the individual will focus more on the important things which have to be dealt with at faster rate. They also are said to help in clearing the mind keeping it at peace for rest of the day giving sufficient time to plan entire day without letting go of anything. Also the time during exercise can be used to help in planning entire day out.
2. Prioritizing: There are many people who surely state their willingness to start exercising but they do not do so only since they have not chosen to give it higher priority among several other things which are to be done for that day. Getting up early will surely help them to fulfill their intentions giving the body proper health.
3. Be Positive: Getting up early and starting with workout is said to help in rushing the body with healthy hormones which is known as happy endorphins that are ultimately said to have positive effect even on the moods.
4. Achieve: Starting out the day early and imbibing good habits will not necessarily need any other achievements instead the goal of being active for the day is sufficient that also has positive effect on improvisation of confidence levels in an individual.
5. Metabolize: Starting out the day early with workouts are said to help in cutting down additional fat that has been stored in the body by choosing physical activity which will initiate the metabolism also forcing body to re-generate the energy levels in the body.

For all those who are not satisfied with this reasons should be convinced with the idea that for all those who do not undergo any physical activity can go with some or the other activity irrespective of the day in which it is done. There are many people who find themselves to be at guilt for having let go of the chance to kick start their day with some sort of physical activity.

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If you’ve been hitting the gym regularly without seeing any results, you may be committing some of these post-workout mistakes that hamper your fitness goals. These mistakes may also result in injury or illness. 

Here are some common mistakes you could be making after a workout.

You don’t rehydrate  Nourishing your body is essential as exercise depletes the nutrients in your body, and not replenishing them in time delays the nutrition recovery process. A rehydration plan is key to recover your body’s lost nutrients, especially if you’ve been working out in hot weather. Sports drinks restock electrolytes, but they also contain extra calories. Drink plenty of water after basic workouts and drink sports drinks only after intense workouts.

You stay hungry for too long Refuelling immediately after a workout helps strengthen muscles. If you have high muscle mass or a high metabolism, you need to make it a point to eat meals rich in protein soon after working out.

You don’t eat enough protein Protein is an important nutrient that should be a part of your nutrition plan. Protein helps rebuild your muscles, and studies suggest that muscle protein synthesis is at its peak within three to five hours after strength training and then it gradually diminishes over a 48 hour period. After a workout, consume a protein shake, eggs or lean meats.

You reward yourself with calorie-laden treats Instead of polishing off a decadent dessert, choose healthy post-workout snacks that are under 150 calories. High-calorie foods will make you regain lost calories, so try some healthy recipes that have adequate protein content.

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Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

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If you’re planning your new year’s resolutions, why not try something new? To help those who want to focus on healthy living and fitness, here are 12 fitness trends to watch out for in 2015.

Boutique fitness

Boutique fitness offers a more personal approach to fitness as well as a more luxurious ambience. Highly-specific studios are being introduced for workouts like underwater cycling, aerial yoga, indoor rowing, etc.

Boot camps

Fitness boot camps provide an opportunity to improve strength and endurance, and more and more men and women are opting for this military style training that encompasses cardio, strength, endurance and flexibility training. Boot camps are perfect for those who favour intense and complex workouts.

Telemetry

Telemetry is a tech trend that is really catching up with fitness buffs. Telemetry involves pulse monitors, wristbands that chart your daily activity and movements and other wearable devices. Competition-based workouts are also gaining popularity, specifically in group fitness classes like cycling or running, where performance metrics are put up on a board in the room.

Organised dance parties

Organised workout parties blend fitness and yoga with dance music and DJs. Dance party workouts are a more fun and pleasant approach to fitness. The workout may feel like a party, but it will also bring your heart rate up, work out your core, and make your muscles burn in the best possible way.

Group personal training

Group personal training is a great way to stay economical and make workouts more fun.  A growing number of personal trainers are providing more group training opportunities. Training three to four people at a time is cost-effective for the trainer and the clients.

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Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

New to yoga? Notable yoga experts offer some tips.

1. Don’t Worry About Being Perfect

“Along with your yoga mat and your towel, bring a sense of humor to class. Students who get hung up on doing everything ‘perfectly’ are less likely to come back.” — Seane Corn, creator of the “Vinyasa Flow Yoga” DVD series and national yoga ambassador for YouthAIDS

2. Don’t Force It

“Don’t force your way into yoga. Adapt your movements to accommodate your level of strength and stamina, so that you avoid injury and feel comfortable in every pose.” — Baron Baptiste, founder of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga

3. Connect to the Pose

“Watch out for what I call ‘self mutilation’ — spending your time talking to yourself about what you can’t do. This will make your practice dismal. The more you stay connected to feeling the pose — to breathing into the pose — the better your experience will be.” — Ana Forrest, founder of Forrest Yoga

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Article courtesy: http://www.wholeliving.com/

Planning to hit the gym, but have no idea where to begin? Celebrity Fitness & Nutrition Guru Vinod Channa shares a step-by-step guide for beginners, which will help you understand the different types of workouts.

Cardio workout includes jogging, cycling, any type of dancing activity, aerobics and swimming.

Functional Training: To build up strength, stamina and agility, which you require in daily life.

CrossFit Training is forceful and involves fast movements.

Mixed Martial Art training is for agility and self-defense.

Yoga helps in mental strength, extreme flexibility, internal and external system as well as building strength.

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Article courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/