Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Bertil Hjert


Yoga supplies are really important when it comes to practicing yoga. Yoga supplies help in focusing on your art well and also protect you from getting injured while practicing yoga.

Yoga is a specialized form of meditation. It works towards providing you the serenity that you actually require in order to keep stress away in this chaotic world.

When practicing yoga, it is important to relax as well as meditate with absolute comfort. No distraction should come your way if you want to enjoy the real benefits of this unique form of exercise. Hence, you need to follow certain guidelines when practicing yoga.

First and foremost, you should feel extremely comfortable in the position you are, in the clothes you are wearing and the place you are in at present. Second matter to take into consideration is sweat absorbance. Keep your body away from too much of sweat. You should have something that lets you absorb your sweat.

For fulfilling the above mentioned conditions, you must purchase some of the important yoga supplies. These supplies are widely available these days and extremely affordable.

You need to know the kind of yoga supplies you should purchase prior to setting out for accomplishing the task.

Here are certain yoga supplies you should focus on purchasing:

- Yoga mat

- Yoga footwear

- Sports Bra

- Yoga clothes

- Yoga music

- Yoga DVDs

Once you have a list of yoga supplies you need to purchase, it is time to choose the best of skippers that’s available. You should consider your own comfort level when purchasing yoga supplies.

When purchasing yoga supplies, you need to understand that comfort is the main consideration here. When choosing yoga clothes or yoga shoes, make sure that these are comfortable to wear.

The yoga clothes you purchase should let you move every joint of your body freely. Remember that while moving your body, you should not have any fear of hindering blood flow.

Loose clothing is a good option. However, it has a tendency to slide down when performing certain bending positions.

A good yoga clothing is one that provides you easy motion and capability to leave parts of the human body lift and move in varied positions and postures.

Remember that when performing yoga, you need to perform a lot of twisting and strengthening. Unfit clothes will prove to be a problem to you. The best choice would be elastic materials such as spandex. Pure cotton is also a great option.

Another thing that you need to consider when purchasing yoga supplies clothes is sweat absorbance factor. Make sure that you choose fabrics made of cotton that breathes and absorbs sweat easily.

Make sure that the clothes you purchase are of the right fit. This will ensure the best yoga experience to you.

Remember that in order to practice the best and benefit to a great degree, you must focus on purchasing the best of supply.

Keep all the above mentioned points in mind when purchasing yoga supplies.

Guest Author: Tony Schwartz


Everything that is done repeatedly causes adaptations in the body. This is why we exercise with weights. After performing a sufficient amount of strength training our body adapts in several ways, one of which is bigger and stronger muscles. However, some of the potentially negative adaptations that occur in the body have not been addressed in the mainstream bodybuilding publications. Below you will find out just what negative things strength training is doing to your body, and how a simple cardiovascular training protocol can help to mitigate these effects.

When you lift weights blood is pumped to your muscles to bring nutrients and flush out waste products. This helps to improve endurance during your sets. Over time your body gets better and better at pumping blood to your muscles. One of the main adaptations in your body that occurs to facilitate better blood flow is a thickening of the left ventricular wall of your heart. This thickening allows for more blood flow during those heavy sets, but it also has negative affects on your health. Thickening of the left ventricular wall causes blood to be pumped from the heart more forcefully. The blood vessels respond by becoming more rigid to withstand this pressure. The blood vessels can also develop small tears which become inflamed. This is where atherosclerotic plaque can begin to build up. All of these things lead to an unhealthy cardiovascular system that is at risk for a heart attack.

One of the other things that happens during weight training is the activation of the sympathetic branch of the nervous system. This is typically known as the “fight or flight” branch. When the sympathetic branch is activated it causes a release of the chemicals epinephrine and nor-epinephrine, which are commonly referred to as adrenaline. These chemicals can greatly enhance your strength. However, if you are constantly calling on the sympathetic branch of your nervous system it adapts by becoming more easily activated or by staying activated. This leads to what is known as “sympathetic dominance.” This essentially puts your body into “fight or flight” mode all of the time. As you may guess, this is very stressful on all of the body’s systems and not conducive to recovery from exercise.

So how do we correct these two issues? Well, there are many different corrective methods out there, and not all people will respond the same to any one method. However, in my work with professional athletes I found that one of the simplest methods is also one of the most effective. This method is simple cardiovascular exercise.

Everyone has heard about the health benefits of cardiovascular exercise. Many people also use cardiovascular exercise for fat loss (even though this is not the quickest method for fat loss).

However, most of us who are serious about weight training have heard at one time or another that cardiovascular exercise is actually detrimental to muscle and strength gains. While this is true with certain types of cardiovascular exercise, it is completely incorrect for other types. However, many lifters have adopted a negative view of cardio and hence neglect to incorporate it into their programs for fear of losing muscle. With this in mind, let’s look at how performing cardio can actually increase your strength and muscle gains, much more than weight training alone.

As mentioned above, two of the unhealthy adaptations that occur from prolonged strength training are:

1. Thickening of the left ventricular wall of the heart

2. Sympathetic dominance in the nervous system

Low-intensity cardiovascular exercise can correct both of these issues. By activating the parasympathetic branch (the rest and relaxation branch) of the nervous system, the sympathetic branch’s influence is diminished and the body is shifted to a state in which it can begin recovery. Low-intensity cardio also helps to stretch the left ventricular wall of the heart which makes the wall more pliable over time. This allows better blood flow to all of the body while at rest. Blood flow to the muscles is a huge component of recovery, and this is an easy way to promote it. To receive these benefits the key is the intensity and duration of the cardiovascular exercise.

The protocol is simple:

2-3 times per week, 45-60 minutes, heart rate of 120-130 bpm

This means that you can pick any exercise you want: treadmill, bike, elliptical, stairs, etc. Most people find all of these options boring, so I would recommend some other activity (walking outside, shooting hoops, playing with your kids, etc.). The only requirement is that you do it for at least 45 minutes and that your heart rate stays between 120 and 130 beats per minute (bpm) the whole time. What you don’t want is an activity where you have to sprint hard and then rest. This causes the heart rate to increase quickly and then slow down again. This type of training is similar to weight training and will only make recovery more difficult.

What you want is very low intensity cardio. This will not eat up muscle glycogen or harm your ability to gain muscle mass. To the contrary, it will stimulate the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system and improve blood flow to your damaged muscle fibers. This helps you to not only recover more quickly between training sessions, but between sets as well.

Remember that training hard is only half the battle. The limiting factor for muscle growth is the ability to recover between training sessions. Using effective strategies like low-intensity cardio to enhance your recovery will help your muscle gains skyrocket!



Health and Vitality Now

Guest Author: Taylor Ryan


For years I was under the impression that I would reach my physical goals through cardio exercise alone. I was afraid of the weight side of the gym and felt that women should remain at the elliptical machines. NOT TRUE. It was no surprise that I never achieved my goal, or came close for that matter. It finally hit me that I was working out 1-2 hours everyday and not seeing results. Sure I was thin but by looking at me I did not look like the athlete I wanted to resemble. I studied up a bit and learned that I was actually doing way too much cardio and I needed to revolutionize my workout.

Cardio is great for the heart, lungs and blood flow. It also helps to relieve stress and helps you sleep better through the night, so by no means am I saying it should be removed completely. I would be lost. When doing cardio the body initially uses fat for its fuel however this is not an effective source after about 20 minutes and the body uses lean muscle! Who wants to see their muscle fade away!? This is where strength training was first introduced to me.

Weight lifting strains the muscles creating tiny tears (this is where the muscle soreness comes from). These tears are repaired by the body after a workout and with it more muscle is created. Muscle needs lots of energy to sustain itself.

Just by adding one pound of muscle the body will need an additional 50 calories per day! This helps you to lose the weight while toning up. It is also better for the joints than cardio and the affects lasts longer than those of cardio. Cardio may burn more calories during the process but weight lifting burns calories during and for up to 2 hours after!

As stated above, I am not throwing cardio exercise out the window. When done moderately and safely it is great. The two forms of exercise actually complements each other. I still do a bit of cardio each time I work out but I stop at 20-25 minutes! This is my time to let out my frustrations and enjoy the time I have with my ipod playing in my ears and solitude from a busy day!

I want to stress that no woman should be afraid of weights. If you are afraid of getting bulky and hilk like, throw it out the window. A womens physiology does not resemble a mans and therefore she is not able to get huge. Testosterone is the number one factor allowing Arnold Schwarzenegger to look the way he did and we fortunately lack large amounts of this hormone. Weights allow women to look and feel strong, lean and sexy.

Below I will describe the best 20 minute cardio workouts!

It is called Interval Training and it can be applied to many different forms of cardio including boxing, running and biking.

The concept in a nutshell is shorter workouts, but higher intensity. This is accomplished by pushing hard for say two minutes and then slowing down for two minutes. If you repeat this cycle four more times then you have your 20 minutes. You could also do one minute hard, one minute easy and then repeat this nine more times.

Here is an example:

Interval training is perfect for running. If you are working out on a treadmill or running outdoors, it is the same routine. Start out with a warm up jog followed by two minutes of a challenging pace. This will not be your all out because you have to maintain it for two minutes, but a pace that will be very hard for you. You then follow this with two minutes of either a walk or a very slow jog. Repeat four more times and you have got yourself an effective cardio workout in only 20 minutes.

This concept can be applied to many different forms of cardio: two minutes hard, two minutes easy, repeat four more times. Or one minute hard, one minute easy, repeat nine more times.

You will get your blood flowing, your heart pumping and reap all the benefits cardio has to offer all in only 20 minutes.

Guest Author: Abhishek Agarwal


Yoga is one form of physical exercise that millions of people all over the world taking to with lots of interest. Its popularity is growing at tremendous speed and more people are being influenced into practicing it. The most common form of yoga is Hatha Yoga. This form of yoga involves breathing exercises and physical exercises which involve doing postures. Doing hatha yoga makes a person gain strength, stamina, vitality and become flexible. The blood flow throughout the body also improves to a great extent.

Hatha Yoga also involves certain meditation techniques which help people become more peaceful and also creates self awareness. Doing Hatha yoga changes your outlook towards life making you more aware of every tiny detail. Various centers have been established in many cities that are promoting hatha Yoga.

You do not need to learn yoga through a teacher, getting yourself a book or a proper DVD or Video on yoga would be enough. Dahn Yoga is another form of Yoga other than Hatha Yoga.

Dahn yoga is also known as Dahn Hak or Dahnak and it originated as a Korean instruction program in its early days. The aim of the program was to teach people to have a larger perspective of life by expanding their physical and mental consciousness. This yoga got lost for some time and was rediscovered much later and had its first center in Korea. Dahn Yoga first came into the Untied States in1991 and ever since many new centers have opened up. Dahn yoga does not involve any form of physical exercise.

In Dahn Yoga a person is taught about the action and movement of energy in the body which is what the basic principles of this yoga are. Dahn yoga believes that it is due to stress that a person’s body becomes aged and weak. So by removing the stress factor one is able to see great improvement in one’s health there by increasing their life span. The knowledge of improvement and development of energy inside the body is what Dahn Yoga is all about. This form of yoga teaches a person to communicate with their body effectively.

People who are into this practice believe that there is healing energy inside each one of us. And it is this natural healing power which needs to be stimulated which connects the body to the conscious mind.

Dahn yoga involves breathing techniques along with deep stretches and meditation so that the physical, mental and spiritual healing energies are stimulated. Doing this yoga helps us become more relaxed while we discover our inner self. Our lives then become stress free without any trace of anxiety which gives us greater self control and awareness.

Deep breathing and meditation helps the body to accumulate more energy which makes the body’s system and various organs to function effectively. This helps in elimination of toxins from the body. When we have a healthy body we also have a healthy mind which is full of positive thoughts making us brim with self confidence. We thus become free from any addictive behaviors.

The integration of the body and mind helps all our dormant abilities to come out and we start achieving our goals. Most people who practice Dahn Yoga volunteer to teach and train interested people for free. Living a healthy life in peace is what Dahn yoga is all about.