Lifetime Fitness 4 Men

Beat That Pain With Low Back Pain Exercises

Low back pain has been estimated to have affected roughly 80% of the Western World population at some point in their lives.  Quite a problem but, it can be helped by practicing low back pain exercises.  Most cases are not serious and are resolved within 2 to 3 weeks.  However, 3 in 4 sufferers will experience reoccurring pain within 12 months. 

The most common type is called ‘simple low back pain.’  The use of the word ‘simple’ does not mean that the pain is necessarily mild because it can be very bad.  It means that the pain is not caused by any underlying disease.  Usually, the pain is centred in one area of your lower back, but can affect your thighs or buttocks.  Pain relief can usually be found by lying down flat whereas; some movements, coughing or sneezing can intensify the pain.

It is very common amongst adults and is often the result of overuse of the muscles, muscle strain or injury.  In most cases, the practice of low back pain exercises may help to relieve the pain and can help speed your recovery.  Try and avoid activities and positions that may increase your low back pain but, continue with normal life as far as possible.  You may find that non-prescription pain relievers are helpful.

Another type of low back pain is nerve root pain where a nerve from the spinal column is pressed on or irritated.  Commonly known as a ‘trapped nerve’ the pain may be felt down a leg.  Sciatica is an example where the sciatic nerve is affected in this way.

When the acute pain you have been suffering has diminished, you may feel able to attempt some low back pain exercises.  One exercise that helped me get relief when I suffered from simple low back pain is a back stretching exercise called ‘The Cat.’ 

Position yourself on all fours with your knees directly under your hips and hands directly under your shoulders.  Now as you inhale, drop your stomach towards the floor and at the same time look up over your head.  Pause for a moment, then exhale, draw your stomach back up and round your back as you tuck in your tailbone and chin.  Pause once again and then slowly repeat the exercise another five times.

Your spine is supported by muscles of the abdomen, back and buttocks, so if these muscles are weak, low back pain can be the result.  By introducing low back pain exercises into your daily routine, you can help yourself. 

By stretching and strengthening the muscles of your abdomen and spine, you can provide better support for your spine and so less susceptible to injury.  Swimming, walking and yoga will also help.

If your low back pain becomes worse, persists beyond four to six weeks, or your symptoms alter, then you must consult your doctor for advice.

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Become Super Fit With Boxing Exercise

Is boxing exercise good for your fitness?  You bet it is.  Boxing exercise, whether called box-aerobics, cardio-box, or any of the other names it gets dressed up as, has become very popular in the world of fitness.

According to the American Council on Exercise, boxing exercise in some form or another is available in over twenty per cent of U.S. health clubs.  

So why is this form of exercise so popular?  Top reason, it burns calories like crazy.  Great if you want to burn off unsightly and unhealthy surplus belly fat.  It includes aerobic and cardiovascular routines to give you high levels of fitness and endurance together with anaerobic workouts to develop power and strength.

A typical conventional boxing gym workout would consist of sessions of shadow boxing, circuit training, skipping and bag work.  These sessions would satisfy the requirements of both aerobic and anaerobic workouts.

Health clubs may offer various forms of boxing exercise workouts for persons who just want to improve their fitness levels or lose body fat.  These might include:
Cardio boxing which is a complete workout for your cardiovascular and endurance systems.  It conditions your whole body by developing increased levels of strength, stamina, speed and co-ordination.

Another workout is kick boxing.  This helps to develop levels of resistance, vigor and momentum.  Muscle suppleness is improved as well.  It has been the experience of some practicing kick boxing that their anxiety levels have decreased as they let off steam on a punch-bag.

If joining a health club is not for you, then you could easily perform a boxing exercise routine at home.  Equipment requirements are quite basic.  A punch-bag, gloves, jump rope (skipping rope,) a timer and possibly some music are all that are necessary.  A good DVD course to help you is a sensible aid to have.

If you are looking for an all round exercise workout that will work both your aerobic and anaerobic systems, whether in a gym or at home, then a boxing exercise routine could be for you.  

Do your body a favor and treat it to a superb body tuning with this 1000 calories per hour burner.

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Core Stability Exercises For More Power

Your core is your body’s ‘powerhouse;’ your ‘engine room’ driving dynamic movements like running, kicking, punching, etc.  To develop your core it is necessary to firstly to establish your static stability and you can achieve this through core stability exercises.

There are three areas that make up your core, posterior, anterior and lateral and each area consists of several both deep and superficial muscles.  Often the core is thought to be the six-pack alone but, that is just one muscle among many that contribute to it.

So, what is a stable core?  Just think, if you wanted to jump high into the air, what would be the best ground to take off from?  Would it be concrete or deep sand?  Obviously, you would achieve greater height from a concrete platform than you would from deep sand because it has greater stability.  So, having a stable core is having a solid base to work off. 

So, before practicing dynamic core exercises, it is essential to erect a stable launch base to work off.

What are the best core stability exercises to help develop your core stability base?  My favourite is Swiss ball exercises.  The Swiss ball has an unstable surface that literally makes your muscles work to compensate for this and maintain a table base.  Therefore, those deep muscles unused when exercising on a firm base are forced into activity along with your superficial ones.

The following Swiss ball exercises are good for training the muscles of your posterior, anterior and lateral areas to form a stable base:

1. Lie on your back, spread your arms in a ‘T’ formation with palms upward, and position your feet on of the ball.  By pushing your heels downwards and lifting your hips up, attempt to pull your feet towards your butt.  Slowly build up to about twenty repetitions.

2. Hold your body straight in a bridge position with your forearms placed on top of the Swiss ball.  Build up slowly to holding this position for ninety seconds.

3. Lie on your side with the Swiss ball under your hip.  Next, position your feet flat against a wall with your top leg back and your bottom leg forward.  Hold your body in a straight bridge position.  Now, repeat the exercise on your other side.  Slowly build up to ninety seconds on each side.

By practicing core stability exercises you will develop a stable core base as a launch pad for more dynamic activities.

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Exercises With Weights For Better Health

It is a common belief that anyone practicing exercises with weights is a bodybuilder.  Images of muscular men and women posing and strutting around gyms come to mind.  This is not the case because, lots of people, both young and old, use exercises with weights to just simply improve their health.
 
How can weight training improve your health?   By regularly practicing a workout with weights, your muscles will over time become toned and strong.  Here’s the great news, when your body increases its muscle content, it burns more calories.  This helps with weight loss and so reduces problems with obesity and its related conditions.

Here’s another good item of news, to increase muscle using exercises with weights does not mean you spending hours daily in a gym.  By training for just two hourly sessions per week, you could start on the pathway to lifetime fitness and good health.

If you decided to combine lifting weights with a cardio routine, it is best to start with exercises with weights, not forgetting your warm up exercises of course, and do your cardio routine to finish.  There are two reasons for doing your workout in this order, firstly, research has shown that your chances of losing more weight are increased and secondly, weight training with fatigued muscles could lead to an injury.

When starting out your workout with weights, do not try to do too much at first.  Begin with a couple of exercises and gradually build it up.  Results will not appear immediately, but if you practice exercises with weights consistently, you can expect visual changes within a few weeks.

It is essential that you know exactly what weights you should exercise with and how to use them correctly.  With this in mind, you would be wise to either hire a personal trainer or seek advice from a qualified gym staff member.

Improving health using exercises with weights is a matter of regular and consistent practice.  However, by incorporating other types of exercise into your daily workout with weights and combining it with a healthy diet, will advance your health that much quicker.

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