Drinking enough water is easier said than done, because even though you know that you should drink at least a litre of water every day, it is difficult to remember to do so. Here are some clever ways that you can use to trick yourself into drinking more water.

 

Set a goal

Before you start, you should have an approximate idea of how much water you already drink every day and how much more you need to drink per day.

 

Bond with your bottle

Go out and buy a water bottle that you really like. Chances are that if you really like your bottle, you will be excited to drink water from it and less likely to forget to do so. It can be a cool colour or have a cute picture on it, whatever appeals to you most.

Carry water with you

When you’re out, you may not find water when you need it and you may not always be able to stop and buy it. Instead, make it a point to carry a bottle of water with you every time you leave the house. If you have a bottle with you you’re more likely to drink from it.

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Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

As an athlete, rest and recovery are an integral part of any training program. As an adrenaline junkie, not so much. “No rest for the weary” is not a made-up phrase. So how does one find balance in a career of athleticism or simply as someone who enjoys physical activity?

As a wellness coach and nutritionist, I see this often. The compulsion to keep going, keep pushing, the “sleep when I’m dead” mentality can become chronic amongst athletes and fitness fanatics. Here are four ways to prioritize sleep, rest and recovery as part of your personal holistic wellness program:

1. Set an alarm.

Set a reminder in your phone for each evening that signals the end of movement and activity. No more exercise, no more work, no more electronics, no more excessive stimulation.

Start shifting into rest mode. Read a book, journal about the day, curl up with a loved one, take your legs up the wall, meditate and visualize for the next day’s training session, get into bed and sleep deeply. Make a ritual of evening downtime rather than flying into bed at the last minute, never giving the nervous system a chance to settle into rest mode.

2. Utilize your rest day.

Don’t just spend your rest day waiting for it to be over so you can get back in the saddle or in the water or on the trail (I’m talking to you!).

Take the day to fully be in your body. Visualize the muscles that are recovering, the tissues that are repairing. Focus on fluid intake and nutrition. Do some gentle yoga. Direct attention towards the things you’re too busy to do every other day when you’re training. Make lists of what to get done and stick to them.

3. Get creative.

Sometimes, as busy bodies, we tend to just want to “do do do” and “go go go.” By making a commitment to nurturing your creative side (a side each and every one of us has), you’re making space for stillness and growth.

It could be painting, building, designing, writing, playing an instrument, gardening…the opportunities are endless. Find what makes your motor run — creatively speaking — and commit an hour or two each week to fully experiencing it. This balances the yin and yang, the movement and stillness, and gives pleasure from a different angle.

Cultivating intimacy with a creative outlet now while young and healthy, really developing a relationship with and reliance on it. It’ll prove an excellent lifelong tool and resource.

4. Make eight hours a rule.

As an endurance athlete, you’re good at the “no pain no gain” mentality. Make it the same with eight hours of sleep.

It might be painful to get used to at first, but the gains will be well worth the extra snooze time. Your muscle, tissues and cells are repairing as you sleep, your hormones are doing their job, your organs are detoxifying and your brain is on vacation. Give yourself this. It’s not a luxury, it’s just as important as eating well and exercising. The three are a unit.

We can get a little obsessed and linear as human beings, but it’s so important to remember our biology. We weren’t created to overdo. We weren’t built to slave away all day long with no rest. Our bodies ask for what they need but we must listen. With some simple tweaks and a bit more rest, you may be shocked by the ripple effect. You’re worth it.

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Article & Image credits: Mind Body Green

Bootcamps, Pilates, Zumba. All new catch-phrases in the world of fitness! What is really happening is that more of us are becoming aware about the importance of Exercise. Slice of Health on Big FM brought to you this topic across 15+ cities. Find out who the doctors were on the show. 

 

City	RJ Name	Doctor
Mumbai	RJ Siddharth	Dr Dipti Mehta ,senior physiotherapist. Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute
Delhi	RJ Deepak	Vinod Channa ,  Celebrity Fitness Trainer
Hyderabad	Shekar basha	Reema, Fitness trainer
Kolkatta	RJ Khash Bondhu Kaushik	Dr Shubhodip Bandhyopadhyay(Ortho Physian, Salt lake, AMRI)
Bangalore	RJ Shruti	Dr Raksha Changappa. Raksha Changappa, is an award winning Indian dietitian-nutritionist, based in Bangalore, India
Udaipur	Mr. Mridul Sharma	Kalpesh Vaya
Indore	RJ Neetu	Mr .Pratesh Parmar, Fitness Guru
Surat	RJ Meet	Harshal Patil
Vadodara	Rj Tejal Jani
Ranchi	Rj Pranay	Dr. S. N. Yadav: Ortho Surgeon
Bhopal	RJ Amita	Mr. Vishal Verma from Vishal Fitness Planet Bhopal.
Jodhpur	Rj Saavi	Dr. Pushpa, Ortho Physician
Surat	RJ Meet	Harshal Patil (Fitness Guru)

 

 

Here are some back-care tips to help prevent or relieve backache. Take note of the warning signs that things might not be as they should as far as your back is concerned.

Warning signs of back pain:

• Pain in the back
• Restriction of back movements
• Back pain accompanied by numbness of one or both legs
• Back pain radiating to the foot or knee
• Dizziness or disturbance of vision related to neck posture
• Difficulty standing up after sitting for prolonged periods
• Back pain after standing for a prolonged period of time

NB: Back stresses build up whether or not you’re in pain. It’s important to go for a medical evaluation to identify any kind of spine damage, muscle strain or sprain.

Back-care tips
“Body mechanics” refer to how your body moves when performing activities. Avoid twisting the spine and getting into awkward positions for long periods of time. Awkward repetitive movements cause microtrauma to muscles, tendons and nerves, creating inflammation. A by-product of inflammation is scar tissue, which is the body’s way of repairing injuries, but can cause unhealthy posture.

1. Stretching
Regular exercise including strengthening, stretching and a cardiovascular programme are important to maintain your health and prevent injuries. Exercise improves posture, strength, endurance and flexibility and accelerates the flow of blood and nutrients to your muscles.

Take a stretch break
Easy exercises can prevent problems and allow your body to do the work you ask it to do. You can do these exercises anywhere throughout the day. The more often you do them, the better you will feel.

Stretching brings nutrients to your muscles and relieves tension. It increases the feeling of well-being and improves flexibility. When possible, take breaks and stretch whatever area feels tight. Stretch slowly without bouncing and gradually increase the stretch to your tolerance (you should not stretch into pain).

Strengthening keeps muscles strong and helps to prevent any future problems. After exercising, you should pay close attention to how your body feels, and ask your physiotherapist to explain anything you don’t understand. Awareness of your body’s pain signals can help to prevent injury as well as help recovery.

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On 12 October 2014, World Arthritis Day will be celebrated around the globe.

The day was first observed in 1996 by Arthritis Rheumatism International and is now a worldwide event, bringing arthritis sufferers together to get their voices heard!

World Arthritis Day aims to raise awareness of the condition and make sure that sufferers and caregivers know all the support and help that is available to them.

The day is run in partnership with the European League Against Rheumatism, who represent patients, health professionals and rheumatology researchers from around the EU.  They aim to reduce the burden of this condition on individuals and society.

In 2003 the World Arthritis Day website was set up to provide an informative resource for the campaign and for organisations who represent people with arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases.

Every one to two years a new theme is chosen for the day and in 2012 the theme was ‘Move to Improve’ and on 12 October the campaign ‘Waving for World Arthritis Day’ encouraged people to wave in support of the day.  An amazing 65,000 people in more than 70 countries participated and posted their ‘waving’ photos on the website making this a very successful campaign.

The awareness day looks set to have even more going on in 2014, and you can even hold your own event.

To register and find our more, visit the World Arthritis Day website.   You can also read lots of information about the symptoms of arthritis and arthritis care.

Burpees are one of those exercises that everybody loves to hate, but they offer so many benefits that their popularity is spreading regardless of how hard they may feel when you do them.

These days, you’ll encounter burpees everywhere from HIIT workouts to boot camps to CrossFit, and for good reason. They’re one of the most efficient, functional exercises you can do.

So how do you actually do a burpee?

There are several different types of burpees — some include a plank, others have a full push up, a tuck jump or even a pull up at the end. Since the tend to focus mainly on speed and conditioning (rather than worrying about doing a full push up every rep), here’s are a few variations:

Learn about a few more variations of burpees

Article Courtesy: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

Picture credits: http://30dayfitnesschallenges.com

You’ve heard it a thousand times: 50 is the new 40, 40 is the new 30, and so on and so on. That’s all fine and good when you’re talking about how to dress, going out to see a band, or how you feel in general. But when it comes to exercise, you need to act your age.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I was obsessed with exercise. I was a triathlete, I ran like there was no tomorrow. It was all about competition, speed, how many miles I could get in, how many calories I could burn. I did yoga and Pilates to balance the hardcore running I was doing. I didn’t need anybody to motivate me. I just did it myself. I got myself up and out the door every day, no problem.

But now, at 45, my body just can’t take all that pounding of running, and I’m not going to risk injuring myself to try to keep up with what I was doing in my 20s. Nowadays, exercise is more about creating strength, stability and flexibility than burning calories or competing. Now, I have to ask myself, Can I do it at all?

The truth is, as you transition out of your 20s and 30s, you need to drop the no pain, no gain mentality. You have to listen to your body and accept that, as you get older, you will benefit in the long-term from accepting that you have limitations and they should not be ignored.

Now, instead of running my ass off and competing with myself and everyone around me, I don’t run at all. I like to spin or take a cardio-sculpting class or do CrossFit. Instead of yoga and Pilates balancing out the attack of intensive cardio, they’re a regular part of my fitness routine. Exercise is about having fun.

In my 40s, I find that I need someone to push me, to keep me motivated through a workout. If I don’t have classes to go to, I am lost in my week, thinking, What am I going to do?

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Article Source: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

Looking to shred up while preserving muscle? Then you need to try sprinting. Use this easy-to-follow progression to start losing fat faster.

Sprints are hard. But they’re only hard for a little while, unlike the 30-45-minute steady state runs that are still the hallmark of so many routines. But those who are willing to push their stride to the max for a few brutal minutes are often rewarded with more burned bodyfat, a higher resting metabolism and more muscle preserved. The science is legion (and growing) but here’s a condensed helping of some of the awesomeness that interval-style sprinting has to offer.

>> Increases Power: Research suggests that high-intensity interval sprints can help to increase your body’s mitochondria count. More mitochondria, referred to lovingly as the “powerhouse” of your body’s cells, means more fuel burned and more energy produced by working muscles. This has enormous carryover to pretty much anything involving movement while also making you leaner and more powerful.

>> Increases Fat-Burning: Sprint workouts are, by nature, shorter so they may not burn as many calories as a typical steady-state workout. But a single session of high-intensity training can boost post-workout fat oxidation by 75 percent. Think that can help you on your way to Leanville?

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Article credits: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/

Forget dumbbell-based workouts at the gym — if you want strong, toned arms, all you really need is your own body and a little motivation.

These seven exercises will get your arms and upper body super strong, no equipment needed:

1. Reptile push-ups

Reptile push-ups not only look cool, they’re also great for working your arms as well as your core.

To do them, start in a push-up position, with your shoulders directly over your hands, then tighten your abs, glutes and thighs. While lowering your chest to the floor, bring one knee toward your elbow on the same side of the body. Push yourself back up and repeat on the opposite side. Focus on your form, be consistent, and you will build up strength quickly.

Watch how to do reptile push ups here.

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